Thursday, May 29, 2008
GM, UAW forge Lordstown local pact
Associated Press
LORDSTOWN — The United Auto Workers says it has agreed on a local contract with management at General Motors’ Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant.
The plant makes small cars for Chevrolet and Pontiac about 40 miles southeast of Cleveland.
UAW Local 1112 in Lordstown said on its Web site [...]
GM: 19,000 hourly workers have taken buyouts
UAW agrees to new contract in Lordstown, Ohio
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Craig Trudell
Automotive News | May 29, 2008 - 2:17 pm EST
DETROIT — General Motors said today that about 19,000 hourly employees have taken the latest round of buyouts this year. Most will leave the automaker no later than July 1.
“Despite significant [...]
Thursday, May 29, 2008
New Ford cuts jolt workers
Report that up to 12% of carmaker’s salaried staff may be involuntarily laid off follows bonus payouts.
Bryce G. Hoffman and Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News
News that Ford Motor Co. is planning to lay off as much as 12 percent of its U.S. salaried work force by the [...]
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Source: GM plans more restructuring measures
Tom Krisher / Associated Press
DETROIT — General Motors Corp.’s top managers are working on additional restructuring measures to deal with a declining U.S. auto market and an accelerated shift from trucks to more fuel efficient vehicles, a person familiar with the plan told The Associated Press late [...]
GM scraps big rwd sedans for Chevrolet and Buick
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Jamie LaReau
and Rick Kranz
Automotive News | May 26, 2008 - 12:01 am EST
DETROIT — General Motors has killed plans to develop large rear-drive sedans for Chevrolet and Buick. The result: The next-generation Chevrolet Impala will remain front drive.
"Serious fuel economy issues" killed the rwd vehicles, [...]
GM stock hits 26-year low after report
Ford shares also down
queryvar=”gm,stock,hits,26-year,low,after,report”;
Andrew Grossman
Automotive News | May 27, 2008 - 12:08 pm EST
General Motors’ stock price hit a 26-year low this morning after Citigroup Inc. downgraded the company’s outlook from “buy” to “hold.”
GM shares bottomed out at $16.87 and then closed the day at $17.42 — down [...]
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Ford to slash up to 12% of salaried jobs
Involuntary layoffs planned as sales slump; Rising gas, steel prices stall turnaround
Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News
Ford Motor Co. will cut its U.S. salaried work force by between 10 percent and 12 percent in an effort to jump-start a turnaround plan stalling in [...]
Corporate entitlement behind American Axle strike
My father-in-law Ed is emblematic of the business titans who once ruled Corporate America with a moral backbone and a profound understanding of their public responsibility that reflected the communitarian spirit of their time.
Few Michigan corporate leaders could brag about the heights that Ed reached during his career. His beautiful [...]
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
GM speeds cuts in pickup production at Flint plant
Associated Press
DETROIT — General Motors Corp. says it will speed up production cuts at a pickup truck factory in Flint that had been closed due to a strike at a parts supply company.
GM spokesman Tony Sapienza said Tuesday it’s unclear when the Flint plant [...]
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Dealers worry that Mercury is a goner
With no product in the pipeline, Ford dodges questions about the declining brand’s fate.
Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News
After enduring years of speculation about the future of the Mercury brand, dealers are asking Ford Motor Co. for a straight answer to a simple question: Does [...]
GM seeks Volt tax break to avoid $40k sticker
queryvar=”gm,seeks,volt,tax,break,to,avoid,$40k,sticker”;
Jamie LaReau
Automotive News | May 26, 2008 - 12:01 am EST
DETROIT — General Motors expects its gasoline-electric Chevrolet Volt to come to market in 2010 priced close to $40,000, say sources close to the project.
That’s pricey compared with rivals such as the Toyota Prius hybrid, but [...]
Andrew Grossman
Automotive News | May 23, 2008 - 4:37 pm EST
DETROIT — While General Motors is restarting truck production it had halted because of the UAW strike at American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc., auto dealers say they’re in no hurry to get more trucks on their lots. They have plenty.
Even though GM [...]
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JUNE 2007
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MAY 2007
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Thursday, May 22, 2008
Kansas City approves GM contract
UAW Local 31 will resume making the popular Chevy Malibu after voting for new deal.
Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News
General Motors Corp. will resume full production of its popular Chevrolet Malibu sedan today after workers in Kansas City, Kan., voted to return to the line after a 17-day [...]
GM begins boosting North American production
Total units lost to American Axle strike: 285,503
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Andrew Grossman
Automotive News | May 20, 2008 - 4:28 pm EST
General Motors is starting to make up production it lost because of the UAW strike at American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc.
But the automaker won’t say how soon it expects to be [...]
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
GM reaches tentative deal in Kansas City
Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News
General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers have struck a tentative deal that could end the two-week strike at a Kansas City, Kan., factory that builds the automaker’s critical Chevrolet Malibu sedan.
GM and the union have been haggling over a [...]
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
GM extends deadline for buyouts
Automaker hopes that giving extra week to workers at 4 plants will lure more to take offers.
Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News
General Motors Corp., looking to entice thousands of hourly workers into retirement, will give employees at four factories an extra week to decide whether to cut ties [...]
Ford may seek Volvo sale
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Automotive News | May 20, 2008 - 2:45 am EST
Ford CEO Alan Mulally
LONDON (Thomson Financial) — Ford Motor is cutting production at its Volvo unit to reduce the costs and losses at the Swedish brand, the Wall Street Journal [...]
Monday, May 19, 2008
Used truck price drop hurts new pickups
As trade-in values fall, new model launches in jeopardy
Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News
Rising fuel prices and a collapsing housing industry have sent used truck prices into a nosedive that could threaten the launches of the new Ford F-150 and Dodge Ram pickups.
The same market [...]
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Canadian Auto Workers ratify new deal
Charmaine Noronha / Associated Press
TORONTO — Canadian Auto Workers at Chrysler ratified a new labor agreement Saturday, wrapping up this year’s round of negotiations between the CAW and other major automakers Ford and General Motors.
CAW members at Chrysler’s three Ontario-based plants voted 87 percent in favor of [...]
Saturday, May 17, 2008
GM Delta workers get $2,000
Bonus part of new local UAW labor contract after strike
Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News
Workers who launched a monthlong strike against a General Motors Corp. factory near Lansing will get bonuses up to $2,500 as part of a new local labor deal ratified on Friday.
The new United Auto [...]
UAW STRIKE AT AMERICAN AXLE
Automotive News | May 17, 2008 - 2:05 am EST
DETROIT (Reuters) — The United Auto Workers and American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. said today that they had reached a tentative agreement that may end a nearly three-month strike by 3,650 U.S. hourly workers.
The UAW went on strike on Feb. 26 [...]
Friday, May 16, 2008
Three Rivers, fearing loss of largest employer, fights to keep American Axle plant
Eric Morath / The Detroit News
THREE RIVERS — Erv Heidbrink points at two photos among dozens hanging on his office wall: One is an aged picture of a mighty General Motors Corp. plant, the other a more recent shot of [...]
GM reaches new contract at crossover plant in Mich.
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Craig Trudell
Automotive News | May 15, 2008 - 10:13 am EST
ENLARGE
The UAW and GM reached a tentative agreement at the plant that makes the Buick Enclave and its crossover cousins, the GMC Acadia and [...]
CAW completes Detroit 3 contracts 4 months early
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Craig Trudell
Automotive News | May 15, 2008 - 12:01 am EST
The Canadian Auto Workers pulled off a double-whammy deal today, reaching tentative agreements with General Motors and Chrysler LLC four months before each of the contracts with the two automakers and the union were to expire.
The agreement [...]
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Manny Lopez
GM gets tougher; will UAW cry ‘uncle’?
The guerrilla game of chess the United Auto Workers union is playing with General Motors Corp. turned into a serious game of chicken on Wednesday.
The Detroit automaker canceled medical and life insurance benefits for workers striking the Delta Township factory outside Lansing, something the company [...]
Thursday, May 15, 2008
GM has tentative deal with Lansing plant
Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News
GM has a tenative labor deal with the United Auto Workers local that has been on strike in Delta Township in Lansing.
General Motors Corp. canceled the medical and life insurance benefits of workers on strike at a Lansing-area factory, the latest [...]
CAW nears GM, Chrysler contract deals
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Automotive News | May 15, 2008 - 12:01 am EST
DETROIT (Reuters) — The Canadian Auto Workers union expects to reach contract deals today with General Motors and Chrysler LLC after extending talks overnight, CAW President Buzz Hargrove said late on Wednesday.
The CAW had set an initial deadline of Wednesday evening [...]
UAW local in Ohio sets May 15 strike deadline
queryvar=”uaw,local,in,ohio,sets,may,15,strike,deadline”;
Craig Trudell
Automotive News | May 13, 2008 - 10:59 am EST
A UAW local has threatened to become the third to strike a General Motors plant.
GM spokesman Dan Flores said Local 549 has notified GM that it will strike at 10 a.m. Thursday, May 15, at a [...]
Monday, May 12, 2008
Union slams Axle plans
UAW negotiator calls proposed wage rollbacks, plant closures too drastic; supplier defends offer.
Eric Morath / The Detroit News
DETROIT — American Axle’s demands for deep wage cuts and plans to close all but two of its striking plants are too drastic for the United Auto Workers to accept, according to [...]
Monday, May 12, 2008
UAW strikes sting GM dealers
They feel pinch over parts shortage, lack of diverse inventory as clients wait indefinitely for custom cars.
Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News
The choice was painful but the mechanics at Roth Chevrolet saw no other option.
They needed rear axle parts to repair a customer’s Chevy Suburban SUV. But General [...]
Bradford Wernle
Automotive News | May 9, 2008 - 11:32 am EST
LaSorda: Chrysler wants small cars ‘as fast as we can’
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DETROIT — Chrysler LLC, with a lineup dominated by gas-guzzling pickups and SUVs, is moving as quickly as possible to transform itself into a maker of small and mid-sized vehicles, says co-President Tom LaSorda.
“The [...]
Saturday, May 10, 2008
UAW: American Axle proposal includes closing three plants
Eric Morath / The Detroit News
DETROIT — Negotiations to end the nearly 11 week-long American Axle strike have broken down, as the company is now proposing to close a third plant, United Auto Workers President Ron Gettlefinger said Saturday.
Gettlefinger, in an interview with WWJ radio, [...]
UAW STRIKE AT AMERICAN AXLE
Jamie LaReau
and Philip Nussel
Automotive News | May 9, 2008 - 4:33 pm EST
GM assistance to supplier was a practical decision
queryvar=”gm,assistance,to,supplier,was,a,practical,decision”;
Troy Clarke
DETROIT — General Motors brass considered several options to help strike-bound supplier American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings [...]
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Choice hits Chrysler’s laid-off workers
Sterling Hts. employees among first under UAW pact told to take out-of-state offers or risk losing jobs.
Eric Morath / The Detroit News
Hundreds of laid-off Chrysler LLC workers in Sterling Heights are facing the reality of the landmark UAW contract they agreed to last fall as they find themselves [...]
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Gas hits $4 and a new state high
State average climbs to $3.80, but should fall if motorists drive less.
Jennifer Youssef / The Detroit News
The prediction that a gallon of regular gas in Michigan would hit $4 a gallon sometime this summer was proved wrong Friday.
Because $4 gas showed up, and it’s only [...]
