GM Dundalk Plant Stays Open Three More Years- Saves 1600 Jobs- Its Good To Be Good!

BALTIMORE The AP reported that the General Motors Corp. plant in Dundalk scheduled for shutdown next year will stay open through the summer of 2005, company officials announced Friday.

GM will expand production of the Chevrolet Astro and GMC Safari vans, after estimating that market demand for the vans will increase in the coming year, company spokesman Dan Flores said. The 1,600 employees, with an average seniority of 20 years, will keep their jobs.

They had expected to be let go sometime in the third quarter of 2003.

The announcement came a day after GM surpassed Ford Motor Co. for the first time in the 13-year history of the Harbour Report, a major auto productivity analysis. GM led all domestic manufacturers in assembly, engine and transmission productivity.

GM was the most improved domestic automaker in last year's report.

The returns were boosted slightly by the work of the Dundalk plant, which posted a productivity gain of less than 1 percent last year.

"What we said all along was that the marketplace would determine what would happen to the production and to the facility," Flores said. While there's no spike in current demand for the Astros and Safaris, GM expects it will increase -- at least through 2005.

"Beyond that, no decisions have been made yet," Flores said. "But the marketplace will continue to determine what will happen."