GM, Ford to Idle Plants Next Week

DETROIT AP is reporting that General Motors Corp. will shut down three assembly plants and Ford Motor Co. will idle an assembly line at one plant, each for one week, affecting 9,800 workers, the automakers said Thursday.

The temporary shutdowns are to adjust inventories, the companies said. They begin Monday.

GM plants being idled are the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant, Orion Township (Mich.) Assembly Plant and Oshawa 2 Assembly Plant in Oshawa, Ontario, near Toronto. The three plants employ about 8,900 workers.

All of GM's other plants will be on overtime all or part of next week.

The line producing the Mercury Villager and Nissan Quest minivans will shut down for a week at Ford's Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake, Ohio. Ford Econoline van production will not be interrupted.

About 900 workers will be affected, Ford spokesman Ed Lewis said.

Of those, 140 will be assigned "routine maintenance" work at the plant for the week, while the remaining 760 will be idled, Lewis said.

Both minivans will go out of production permanently by midyear.