General Motors Corp. to Lay Off Nearly 3,000 Workers at Its Lansing Car Assembly Plant

DETROIT March 1, 2005; Dee-Ann Durbin writing for the AP reported that General Motors Corp. said Tuesday it will lay off nearly 3,000 hourly workers at its Lansing Car Assembly plant later this spring.

The plant makes the Pontiac Grand Am and the Chevrolet Classic, which is the fleet version of the Chevrolet Malibu. Both models are being discontinued, so production at the plant is ending, GM spokesman Stefan Weinmann said. The replacement for the Grand Am, the Pontiac G6, is made at GM's assembly plant in Lake Orion.

ADVERTISEMENT GM informed workers of the closure Tuesday, Weinmann said. The company expects to close the plant around May 20, but the exact date will be determined by the number of final orders the company receives.

The plant's 250 salaried workers will be transferred to other locations, Weinmann said. Many of the 2,950 hourly employees are expected to fill positions at GM's new Lansing Delta Township Assembly Plant, which is under construction but expected to start production in 2006. Weinmann said that plant will employ 2,900 people and will be hiring late this year or early next year.

GM, which also announced Tuesday that its February sales fell 12.7 percent from last year, already has slowed production at Lansing's two other GM plants this year because of a backlog of unsold vehicles.

GM idled the Lansing Grand River assembly plant this week. The plant's 1,500 employees build the Cadillac CTS and STS sedans and the Cadillac SRX sport utility vehicle. The Lansing Craft Centre, which makes the Chevrolet SSR, was shut down Jan. 3 and its 500 workers are furloughed until March 5. Workers are receiving unemployment and supplemental unemployment benefits totaling 95 percent of their net pay.

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican who represents the Lansing area, called the closure of Lansing Car Assembly "a major blow."

"The ripple effect that will be felt throughout Lansing and Michigan makes it critical to redouble our efforts to make Michigan more competitive in today's international economy," Rogers said.

Lansing Car Assembly is one of several plants GM is closing this year. The company already has announced it is closing a 69-year-old plant in Baltimore and a second plant in Linden, N.J. Those moves will affect about 2,000 workers.