GM plant takes final orders for vans
By Stacey Hirsh
Sun Sentinel
February 4 2005
www.sun-sentinel.com
General Motors accepted final orders this week for the last vans to be manufactured at its Baltimore plant, moving the 70-year-old Broening Highway factory another step closer to its shutdown this year.
The deadline to order the vans was Monday, said Dan Flores, a GM spokesman. He said company officials are calculating how many production days will be needed to fill the plant's final orders so they can schedule a closing date for the factory. About 1,100 workers at the plant are waiting for a shutdown date so they can prepare for early retirement, a transfer to another factory or layoffs.
General Motors announced in November that it would close the plant in Southeast Baltimore sometime in 2005.
"We definitely do not have an approved build-out date," Flores said, "but we're working our way toward that."
Based on past factory shutdowns, experts said production likely will slow as the Baltimore plant fulfills its final vehicle orders and prepares to close.
Michael Flynn, director of the office for the study of automotive transportation at the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute, said the plant could shut down in stages, laying off some workers before it closes for good.
Workers must learn of the plant's closing date at least 60 days before its shutdown, as required by federal law. Possible options for the workers once the plant closes include retirement or being placed on layoff status, which means an employee will receive part of his or her take-home pay and be eligible for unemployment benefits. Plant workers earn an average of $27 an hour.
If jobs are available, workers could be transferred to other GM facilities. Fourteen Broening Highway workers have moved to other plants, including the Allison Transmission plant in White Marsh, said Walter Plummer, president of United Auto Workers Local 239, which represents the factory's workers.
Its workforce is a fraction of the 7,000 employees at its height 30 years ago.
Sales of the plant's Chevy Astro and GMC Safari vans have been dwindling, and in 2003 Broening Highway was the only major plant targeted for closing under a four-year contract reached between GM and the United Auto Workers.
redriderbob
Plant takes Final Orders for Chevy Astro and GMC Safari Vans:
