The president of the United Auto Workers union stated last week the union is discussing with General Motors about the possible threat to plants and jobs from slumping U.S. vehicle sales.
“We are speaking to the automaker right now about the products that they presently have” at underused car plants including Hamtramck in Michigan and Lordstown in Ohio, and if they might be changed with newer, more popular automobiles such as crossovers, Dennis Williams informed reporters.
“We are tracking it (and) we are addressing it,” Williams suggested.
GM has actually cut shifts at numerous U.S. plants this year as stocks of unsold cars and trucks have actually ballooned. Industry experts stated more tasks could be at risk as the automaker wrestles with permanently shrinking production of little and midsized sedans.
GM is evaluating whether to cancel at least 6 passenger cars in the United States market after 2020, consisting of the Chevrolet Volt hybrid, which could be succeeded in 2022 by a brand-new gasoline-electric crossover model, Reuters noted, after getting the information from people aware of this matter.
Other automaker’s cars at risk consist of the Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac CT6, Cadillac XTS, Chevrolet Impala and Chevrolet Sonic, sources added.
Some experts have singled out GM’s Hamtramck plant in Detroit as one of the most vulnerable due to plummeting vehicle sales.
The plant, which opened in 1985, constructs four slow-selling models: Buick LaCrosse, Chevrolet Impala, Cadillac CT6 and Chevrolet Volt.
During the first half, it constructed fewer than 35,000 cars, fall of 32 percent from the same duration in 2016, as per the providers familiar with GM’s U.S. production schedule. The typical GM assembly plant develops 200,000-300,000 vehicles annually.
GM needs to “produce some innovative new products” to replace slow-selling sedans “or begin closing plants,” stated Sam Fiorani, vice president of AutoForecast Solutions.
