The Question is will these plants if they are reopened be UAW plants or will they be Non Union like the battery plant for the Volt.***************************************************************************************************************
Officials offer incentives for carmaker to resume work
BY TIM HIGGINS
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Tennessee and Wisconsin officials have approached General Motors about incentives to reopen assembly plants, according to a company official.
As part of a possible plan to increase its production capacity, GM executives have discussed ramping up work at plants that have not been identified.
GM has stopped work at factories in Spring Hill, Tenn., and Janesville, Wis. But unlike other unwanted facilities, it did not jettison the facilities in bankruptcy.
The automaker lacks sufficient capacity at its Canadian factory to make enough Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain crossovers to meet demand. GM North America President Mark Reuss also has hinted that the automaker could be looking for a place to increase capacity for future vehicles that GM anticipates "are going to be really hot."
After recent comments by Reuss about wanting to discuss the possibility of government incentives, officials in Tennessee and Wisconsin reached out to GM, Diana Tremblay, GM's top manufacturing executive, told the Free Press in an interview.
"They have come forward to us to tell us that they want to meet with us," Tremblay told the Free Press during an interview at GM's Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant.
"They are definitely interested in getting their foot in the door," she said.
She said that if the U.S. market returns to previous levels, the company won't have enough production capacity. "I don't think we're quite there yet. ... But hey, maybe we will be," she said.
On Wednesday, officials from Tennessee and Wisconsin wouldn't comment.
In Orlando earlier this month, Reuss said GM is looking at options to increase production of vehicles and that could include ramping up activity at plants that have not been identified.
"I'm not ready to say which plants because we're still looking at which ones and how to do it and that would be a conversation that would not just be internal to GM but also (with) some of the states where those plants are," Reuss said.
"What we want to do is something that may not be traditional in terms of how we do it and how we staff it and how we bring it on and off."
While GM executives have been guarded with their plans, the Free Press reported earlier this month that one option under discussion has included the possibility of opening a manual body shop, perhaps in the Spring Hill plant, to assemble vehicles. Such a cost-saving move could help add production quickly with less expense than adding new automated tooling.
The reopening of either plant would cap a roller-coaster period. Both plants along with an assembly plant in Orion Township were spared total elimination under GM's bankruptcy reorganization. The UAW negotiated to keep the three plants and for one to be reopened to build small cars.
Following that announcement last June, Michigan, Tennessee and Wisconsin competed fiercely to win the small car business. At one point, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen complained to the news media that it would take more than $200 million for the Spring Hill plant to stay in the game but that his state didn't have the money.
Michigan eventually won, with state and local leaders pledging $1 billion in incentives to keep the Orion Township plant and its 1,200 jobs.
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