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Even as it slashes jobs and closes plants, General Motors Corp. is upgrading its Allen County pickup truck plant so it can expand its product line.
Company officials announced Monday that GM will retool production lines at the plant so they can make heavy-duty, regular and extended-cab Chevrolet Silverados and GMC Sierras starting Jan. 19. The plant will make the trucks with single and dual rear wheels.
The plant’s 2,600 workers already make light-duty versions of the trucks.
Next year, the Allen County plant also will start making diesel-powered heavy-duty trucks.
Workers on Monday started modifying the plant’s body shop, paint shop and assembly lines to give them the capacity to make the additional models.
Assembly workers have been on layoff since May 4 as GM let sales catch up with its pickup truck backlog in a slumping market. The workers are due to return next week, and Allen County plant manager Mike Glinski said he’s unsure whether making modifications to the plant will disrupt production.
Adding the flexibility to make three-quarter and 1-ton trucks in gasoline and diesel versions will give the Allen County plant greater ability to respond to the market, Glinski said.
Government and GM officials hailed the news as a commitment by bankrupt GM to keep operating the Allen County plant as it tries to become a leaner, more efficient company.
“This is awesome,” Allen County Commissioner Nelson Peters said at a news conference in front of the plant. “It leaves someone who is not often at a loss for words at a loss for words.”
GM officials Monday wouldn’t discuss how much the improvements would cost, but when they pitched the project to the Allen County Council last month, they said it would be worth $46 million.
The council granted GM a tax break worth up to $600,000 over 10 years to entice GM to undertake the project.
At that session, officials said it would allow the plant to retain 50 employees.
Heavy-duty pickups were made at GM’s plant in Oshawa, Ontario, which closed in May.
They’re also made at the Pontiac, Mich., assembly plant, which is slated to close in October.
When GM announced its bankruptcy in June, company officials said they intended to eliminate overcapacity by closing some plants and operating others on two and even three shifts. But whether that happens depends on sales, Glinski said.
“It’s really consumer demand that drives employment and downtime,” Glinski said.
He declined to say whether any other GM plants had bid for the investment, but union officials have said the GM truck plant in Flint, Mich., also requested an upgrade.
Glinski noted that the Allen County assembly plant has been near the top in industry rankings for quality and productivity.
“It’s the workforce, past and present, that make this plant what it is,” said Mark Orr, shop chairman of United Auto Workers Local 2209.
A federal judge Sunday approved the sale of GM’s most valuable assets to a new company. It was a crucial step for the struggling automaker to emerge from bankruptcy.
Gov. Mitch Daniels has been critical of the bankruptcy and the Obama administration’s loans to GM. On a recent visit to northeast Indiana, Daniels said the Indiana Economic Development Corp. might not be interested in providing state incentives for improvements to GM’s Allen County plant.
So far, none has been offered.
“It would have been nice to have support from the state of Indiana,” Orr said. “We had support from the local government, but not from the state.”
