General Motors Plant Ends A-Car Production, Prepares for P-90

09/11/96

The Daily Oklahoman has reported that workers at GM's Oklahoma City assembly plant stopped building the mid-size "A-Car" on the last day of August. Workers at the plant have produced nearly 3.5 million A-Cars since the plant began making them in 1982.

Steve Featherston, president of United Auto Workers Local 1999 at the Oklahoma city plant, said workers built their last A-Car during the late shift on August 31. GM suspended assembly operations at the plant for all of September, and workers are now training to produce a new pair of cars.

The A-Car platform, designed using 1970s technology, is being replaced by two cars built on GM's new P-90 frame: the 1997 Chevrolet Malibu and the new Oldsmobile Cutlass. Production of the new cars is scheduled to start this fall or winter.

Building the "A-Cars" was good for workers, as the cars' popularity as practical, dependable transportation among middle-income, middle-age and fleet buyers kept thousands of Oklahoma workers in jobs over the past 14 years.

Featherston said, "we've enjoyed an unprecedented run of production, compared with a lot of assembly plants. We've been on two shifts, and we've had a good run of production for the entire life of the A-car.

"We've had a second shift running solid since 1983...That's a darned good run. Traditionally in GM, you'd have a second shift work for a couple of years, then be laid off, then come back for another year, then be laid off. We've been able to avoid that here," he said.

The "A-Car" run at Oklahoma City included the Buick Century, Chevrolet Celebrity, Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, Chevrolet Eurosport, and the Pontiac 6000. "It was a good car," said plant personnel director Bob Vervinck.

Last March, a nationwide buyer-satisfaction survey named the 1991 Buick Century the most dependable 5-year-old car in its price class. In 1992, a J.D. Power & Associates study named the Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, also built at Oklahoma City, the best American-made car. Also in 1992, Oklahoma City workers earned the Power & Associates Gold Plant Award for building the highest-quality product in North America, placing the plant first among 46 foreign- and domestically-owned auto assembly plants in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The plant received the Powers bronze award in 1990, and fourth place in 1991. In 1993, the Oklahoma City plant missed first-place honors by just 0.11 of a problem per car.

Featherston indicated his happiness that GM decided to build the Chevy Malibu at the Oklahoma City plant. He says the decision means job security for the plant's workforce: "Chevrolet has been the bread-and-butter staple of a General Motors plant. If you're building a Chevrolet, that's about the best (job) security that you can possibly have. That's still our No. 1 seller."

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel