After reading this disturbing article I have come to realize that our car will be no longer made after 2009.......well it might be made just not in america well who knows read the article for yourself and post your thoughts!!

Ohio factory in play as UAW meets to plot bargaining strategy
By TOM KRISHER
AP
LORDSTOWN, Ohio (AP) - At a massive factory complex not far from Cleveland, most of the 3,200 hourly workers know that they may play a major role in upcoming national contract talks between General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers.

As the union opens its national bargaining convention in Detroit on Tuesday, the 5-million-square-foot Lordstown plant has no car to make when its current products, the Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5, go out of production after the 2009 model year.

GM won't say if Lordstown will get the next generation GM small car. It won't say if the plant will get anything. And it acknowledges that a factory is under construction in Mexico that some analysts believe could be the place where GM builds future small cars for North America. GM spokesman Tom Wickham would only say the plant's primary purpose will be to support GM sales in the Mexican market.

Lordstown, like several other plants without future products, is a bargaining chip for GM as it tries to extract concessions from the union and stem billions in losses during the past two years. The strategy is repeating itself at Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group, as they try to cut what analysts say is an average $2,400-per-car profit disadvantage to Japanese competitors.

"Of course we're concerned about it," said Dave Green, president of UAW Local 1714, one of two locals at the hulking Lordstown complex. "It's our livelihood."

Lordstown, which opened in 1966 and remains a major employer in a region battered by manufacturing job losses, sits along the north side of the Ohio Turnpike about 12 miles west of Youngstown. It cranked out 278,176 Cobalts and G5 small cars last year. Over the years it has made Pontiac Firebirds, Chevrolet Vegas and Impalas, as well as vans and other vehicles.

GM and other companies have in the past withheld products from plants as a strategy to negotiate worker concessions and tax incentives from local and state governments.

But with all three Detroit-area companies struggling, industry observers expect individual plants to become part of the larger national talks that officially open this summer. The UAW contracts with the automakers expire in September.

When 1,500 union members from more than 800 UAW locals in the U.S. and Canada meet for two days this week in Detroit, they aren't expected to get into the nitty-gritty of what will be discussed with individual companies. But they will set the overall bargaining agenda.

"These are the most important negotiations in the UAW's history," said Gary Chaison, a labor specialist at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. "This is where they have to reset their role as a bona fide bargaining agent. They have to try to resist concessions."

In the past few years, auto companies have been using threats of plant closures to negotiate "competitive operating agreements" on a plant-by-plant basis, convincing union locals to allow workers to do multiple jobs and letting companies contract out janitorial and other traditional union jobs to save money. At times, the bargaining has pitted one plant against another.

"The war of all against all is under way," Sean McAlinden, chief economist at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, said in a recent presentation.

At Lordstown, a UAW bargaining committee has been talking with GM about such an agreement, said Jim Graham, president of Local 1112. Graham hopes an agreement will bring Lordstown a vehicle before the national bargaining begins.

"If we go ahead with this contract, I'm very confident that we'll get a product in 2009," said Graham.

GM, currently the healthiest of the Detroit Three, has said little about what it will seek in the national contract. Graham won't talk specifically about what the locals may be asked to give up, and he knows reaching such an agreement won't be easy.

"We're going to have to do things in this contract that 25 years ago would have been unheard of," Graham said. "But because of the economy, because of the position we've been put in, again not necessarily by ourselves, but by the federal government, we have to survive."

Graham said a lot of workers are skeptical about GM withholding a product from the plant.

The workers, he said, already have given to the company in a 2005 agreement involving health care cost concessions.

"The people I'm working with have given back," he said. "I just don't know how much more they can do."

McAlinden said more concessions may be necessary because it's imperative for the Detroit automakers to gain labor cost parity with Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.

The Detroit Three pay hourly workers about $65 per hour including wages, health care costs and pension benefits, while Honda, for example, pays about $40 per hour including benefits, he said.

In a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, GM said it would have to cut its staggering $68 billion long-term liability for retiree health care.

But many of Lordstown's retirees are leery of paying more, even if it would help bring a new car to the plant.

Don Hartman, a 79-year-old retiree from Salem, Ohio, said the 2005 concessions have raised copays, making it difficult for him to afford them on his $1,200-per-month pension. Outside a health fair at one of Lordstown's union halls, Hartman said he recently underwent heart bypass surgery and isn't sure how much he'll have to pay for the physical therapy his doctor has prescribed.

"We never had a vote or anything on it. That's what bothers a lot of the retirees," Hartman said. "I think they've just about reached how much we can afford."

Graham said he's confident that union bargainers at the local and national level can come up with deals that work for everyone.

"In today's world, you have to be flexible," he said. "With the understanding that you look out for the people who are part of your organization."

On the Net:

United Auto Workers: http://www.uaw.org

 

maybe just at that plant...might not be the end. If it is...it was a short ride.

 

That's not a surprise...seems these days the hot thing is to have a model around for 5 years or so, with a mid-life refreshening, and then replace it with something new. Something GM has been ragged on for decades is not updating their lineup often enough.

 

they contracted cobalt production through 09...they may make a new contract to keep producing them through 2012...who knows...

companies dont just go "okay, you guys are going to make this car for 50 years"
they make sure the car is successful and even then will only have a plant set to produce for X amount of time before they decide to coninue or halt production

 

how long untill nothing is made in the U.S. anymore soon the only people working will be the people in suits

 

if the car is successfull they will keep it alive.. they may build it somwhere cheeper like mexico.. kinda like what VW does but if its still a hot seller they will build it... and I personaly think its probably the best small car GM has built todate..

 

+1, what the future brings, the future brings. We cant for sure know what will happen, maybe a new plant will start making cobalts.

 

Yea exactly. Its upsetting and not a smart move. Your point was short but very sweet indeed.

 

..."Cobalts are currently manufactured at GM's Lordstown Assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, although GM is considering moving production to Belgium in 2009 when the Cobalt is due for a redesign for the 2010 model year in a cost-cutting move. A new deal is currently being discussed to keep production in Lordstown after 2009."...

This is really just some speculation off of Wikipedia, but it may be true.

 

I belive it will be made in Mexico along with the new astra. Look over on Gminsidenews.com for more details. Thats where I saw it.

 

It really sucks that they have to make less and less things in the US, its one of the reasons why I bought the cobalt. I knew it was put together in the US by US citizens. But I guess in a world with imports that have to pay much less wages to their employees, its hard to stay afloat. Its so damaging to our economy when you literally have all the money flowing out instead of both directions, and although its cheaper now for these companies and the consumer feels good because they pay a lower price, in a decade or two when it really matters, we will all be out of a job.

And FYI, the Astra will be made in Antwerp, Belgium.

 

The fact that GM may close the Lordstown Ohio plan is more than speculation off Wikipedia. Its been floating around for a long time. Its just that GM still hasn't reached a decision. When they do it will go one way or the other. If they close it I wouldn't be very surprised.

 

Whatever, all it means to me is that GM will produce another vehicle I'll want to get. I use to have a Cavalier they scrapped it, now gotta balt, they may scrapp that too...so I wonder what's next for me to buy

 

I very highly doubt they will stop the production of the Cobalt seeing as it's become so safe, popular and just perfect for teens and college age kids. However, if they do stop making it I'll be happy as hell. Make mine/ours more unique.

 

dont care if they do or not

 

as long as they come out with the caprice and lumina i wont mind...

[B]Caprice LTZ



Caprice SS



Interior





Lumina LTZ



Lumina SS

 

.....that Lumina SS looks friggin hot! I'll buy it in a heartbeat!

 

All Gm Cars are going Rear wheel drive in 2010! This is 1 of the things facing them at the Moment! So if the Cobalt stays after 2010 it will be rear wheel Drive! It's about time they go back to rear wheel!

 

I agree. IF they are getting rid of it, I will believe it when I see it.

 

[QUOTE=Apex;935875]as long as they come out with the caprice and lumina i wont mind...




AH YES.....THE HOLDEN CHEVROLET

 

Can we stop quoting a post with 12 pictures.

 

X2

The monte carlo was only contracted to be produced for 10 years or so when the first one was made in 1970... 37 years later its still sexy. But i guess we'll just have to wait and see.

 

yeah that Lumina SS is bad ass. looks like that Australian car they have called Holden.

 

On another nothe the G5 will for sure be killed in 09 when pontiac makes all car RWD, since they are moving back to their performence roots, and sence the Ion is all ready out the door its rare for GM to kept one one body for a whole platform

 

as long as the camaro come out i dont care lol. thats next one my list anyways lol