[Newsbot]

Title: GM closes Windsor plant, ending an era
Category: Business
Posted By: Hyack
Date: 2010-07-28 15:36:06
Canadian

[stemmer]

Sad day indeed...

[Guy_Fawkes]

Maybe if they made cars worth buying they wouldnt have to close the plant.

[rockindel1]

I have been a GM man my whole life, but after my last 2 new vehicles .. I have had it with the poor fit and finish. and even poorer trade in value. no more new GMs for me.. no one to blame here except for the union.

[PluggyRug]

rockindel1 rockindel1:

I have been a GM man my whole life, but after my last 2 new vehicles .. I have had it with the poor fit and finish. and even poorer trade in value. no more new GMs for me.. no one to blame here except for the union.

Welcome to Ford country.

[stemmer]

Actually this news report shows how biased the media is... The media is reporting GM is shutting down another North American plant when in reality it's moving production to St Catherines...

[BartSimpson]

PluggyRug PluggyRug:

rockindel1 rockindel1:

I have been a GM man my whole life, but after my last 2 new vehicles .. I have had it with the poor fit and finish. and even poorer trade in value. no more new GMs for me.. no one to blame here except for the union.

Welcome to Hyundai country.

Fixed that for you.

[andyt]

rockindel1 rockindel1:

I have been a GM man my whole life, but after my last 2 new vehicles .. I have had it with the poor fit and finish. and even poorer trade in value. no more new GMs for me.. no one to blame here except for the union.

How is the union to blame? And isn't it the same union that builds Fords?

[Mustang1]

GM has been getting better as of late and while this act is devastating for the local Windsor economy, other regions (like Southwestern Ontario and Oshawa) have actually benefited from better GM products

[Lemmy]

rockindel1 rockindel1:

I have been a GM man my whole life, but after my last 2 new vehicles .. I have had it with the poor fit and finish. and even poorer trade in value. no more new GMs for me.. no one to blame here except for the union.

How is the union solely to blame? Management, design and engineering are more to blame for poor quality than the union. The entire collapse of the Big Three comes from a corrupt blend of stupidity and an arrogant sense of entitlement shared by all partners, including the UAW/CAW. But make no mistake, the root of the collapse was the boardroom, not the shop.

[Freakinoldguy]

Lemmy Lemmy:

rockindel1 rockindel1:

I have been a GM man my whole life, but after my last 2 new vehicles .. I have had it with the poor fit and finish. and even poorer trade in value. no more new GMs for me.. no one to blame here except for the union.

How is the union solely to blame? Management, design and engineering are more to blame for poor quality than the union. The entire collapse of the Big Three comes from a corrupt blend of stupidity and an arrogant sense of entitlement shared by all partners, including the UAW/CAW. But make no mistake, the root of the collapse was the boardroom, not the shop.

Well put.

Because of GM's collapse and Fords restructuring the consumer is going to benefit, but only as long as the arrogance and pisspoor attitude that inhabited the North American auto industry remains a thing of the past.

The sad part of the whole thing is that if the big 3 had put this much effort and expertise in building better vehicles 30 years ago we wouldn't be having this conversation and Toyota would still be a Japanese Government owned oddity, and not a giant recall on wheels, here in North America.

[Lemmy]

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

The sad part of the whole thing is that if the big 3 had put this much effort and expertise in building better vehicles 30 years ago we wouldn't be having this conversation and Toyota would still be a Japanese Government owned oddity, and not a giant recall on wheels, here in North America.

Absolutely correct. Toyota's profits (and Honda's) benefited more from Detroit's import quotas than anything they did in Japan. Those quotas, designed to cripple Japanese competition, made them rich beyond their wettest dreams. When it comes to the Big Three, there's no end to the examples of inept business practise.

[ASLplease]

its management's right and responsibility to ensure quality. blaming it on the union sounds like a typical jab, yah yah yah, we know you dont like unions. boring!

[PublicAnimalNo9]

Mustang1 Mustang1:

GM has been getting better as of late and while this act is devastating for the local Windsor economy, other regions (like Southwestern Ontario and Oshawa) have actually benefited from better GM products

Really?? Oshawa?? I gotta wonder who's making the trucks here then cuz I drive by the plant everyday and the parking lots are pretty much deserted. GM may have announced the recalling of 1300 workers to the Oshawa plant but I've yet to see any evidence of it.
The local Windsor economy however won't be that devestated by this closure.
Considering that these are the last 500 jobs out of 7000 that the plant used to have, Windsor has suffered through much worse. Especially considering that while I lived there, the Big 3 had 8 plants between them.

Oh, and whoever made the "Ford country" comment seems to be unaware that Ford is closing down the Essex Engine plant (also in Windsor) with the loss of another 388 out of 400 jobs. And while Ford didn't recieve any bailout money per se, they DID recieve around $90 million from the Feds and Province to keep the Essex Engine plant up and running. Another great investment by our wise and cash smart leaders.

And Stemmer, you make me laugh. The St. Catherines investment will create maybe 400 jobs over the next 20 years!!!! The Transmission plant in Windsor has shed more jobs than that in the last 10 years. Besides, it's not moving it's production form Windsor to St. Catherines. Windsor was a tansmission plant. St. Catherines is where the new V8 will be built. Get your facts straight before blaming the media for being biased.

[Mustang1]

PublicAnimalNo9 PublicAnimalNo9:

Really?? Oshawa?? I gotta wonder who's making the trucks here then cuz I drive by the plant everyday and the parking lots are pretty much deserted. GM may have announced the recalling of 1300 workers to the Oshawa plant but I've yet to see any evidence of it.

Buick Regal will start up there soon. First year models are built in Germany and then moved to Oshawa for North American production soon.