Feingold to meet with GM official about Janesville plant
In the latest effort to convince General Motors to keep its Janesville plant in operation, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., plans to meet Friday with GM chief executive officer Rick Wagoner in Feingold's office in the Washington, D.C .
Wagoner is in Washington Friday to attend a U.S. Senate energy summit and will meet with Feingold Friday afternoon, the senator said.
Both Feingold and Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle have been urging Wagoner to reconsider the decision to close GM's Janesville plant in 2009, and have asked him to retool the plant to make more fuel-efficient vehicles. The plant, which has had its workforce cut in half since GM started talking about closing it, currently makes trucks and sport utility vehicles, which are not selling well.
In a statement released Thursday, Feingold said he would again urge Wagoner to keep making GM products at the plant, which has been running since 191.
"I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to sit down with Mr. Wagoner and tell him directly how important it is that GM maintains a presence in Janesville," Feingold said, adding he would again ask Wagoner to reconsider the decision to close the plant, and ask that the plant be retooled "for a new line of vehicles to maintain the excellent workforce Janesville offers."
The senator said if Wagoner is unwilling to do that, he will ask that GM "do all it can to help Janesville find a productive use for its GM facility, such as helping to bring in another company or industry to take advantage of the tremendous assets Janesville has to offer."
Feingold, a native of Janesville, said that is "the least GM can do for the decades of hard work this community has provided." Feingold also invited fellow Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., and U.S. Reps. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, and Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, to attend the meeting.
Doyle, in announcing the appointment last week of Richard Leinenkugel as the state's new Secretary of Commerce, said he would make a trip to Detroit with several officials, including Leinenkugel, will travel to Detroit in coming weeks to offer GM a plan to keep jobs in Janesville.
