GM Product Schedule Released

Details of the General Motors / United Auto Workers agreement have been released, including inside information about the future production schedule at the American auto maker.  As part of the contract agreement, UAW sought assurances that GM would guarantee that certain products would continue to be built in American factories, as opposed to Canadian, Mexican, or overseas plants.

Included in a document released to the media by UAW were GM's plans to continue building current and future products at 16 of 18 U.S. assembly plants.  Also included is apparently confidential information about GM product cycles.  These plans include:

• The Corvette and the Cadillac XLR will continue through 2011, with new models to begin production in 2012 at the Bowling Green, Kentucky plant.
• After a couple of years of waiting, the new Camaro is expected to begin production in 2011 at Lansing, Michigan.
• Pontiac's Solstice and the Saturn Sky roadsters will continue assebly through 2012 in Wilmington, Delaware, but they have no announced replacement at this time.  The car is rumored to begin production that year in Bowling Green, Kentucky, opening the door for a possible redesign of the two-seaters.  Sadly, this could mean the end of the Wilmington plant.
• The Chevrolet Volt, a highly-anticipated electric car, will begin production in 2010 at a plant near Detroit.  The MPV7 will also go into production here starting in 2009.
• The Pontiac G6 will continue being made in Orion, Michigan, until 2013.  Orion is not yet assigned a new vehicle to manufacture.
• Cadillac models CTS, STS, and SRX will all continue to be built for two years, with a new CTS wagon and CTS coupe starting up in 2009.  Two more cadillac styles are expected to be manufactured beginning in 2011.  This will all take place in Lansing, Michigan.
• Current models of the Hummer H3 and H3T will end in 2011, with updated models heading into production that year in Shreveport, Louisiana.
• Also in Shreveport, the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon will only exist up through 2011.
• Cadillac's DTS and the Buick Lucerne will stay in production through 2010 near Detroit, in Hamtramck.
• Buick Lucerne and Cadillac DTS continue in Hamtramck until 2010.
• The Lansing/Delta Michigan plant will also see several GMC, Saturn, and Buick products continue assebly through 2011, with replacements coming in 2012.
• A brand new, globally distributed subcompact is to be produced in Lordstown, Ohio, where the Chevy Cobalt and Pontiac G5 small cars are already built.  Those cars will be phases out in 2009.  Two new cars will also be manufactured here starting in 2011.
• GM will be closing a plant in Doraville, Georgia.  Workers there have already been notified.

The one assembly plant not mentioned in the deal builds midsize SUVs.  The Moraine, Ohio, location is not mentioned because a separate union covers workers there.

``The whole thing looks fantastic,'' said Dave Green, UAW local president in Lordstown, Ohio, where new subcompacts will be built.  However, the nearly 1,000 employees in Doraville, Georgia, might not feel the same.  They have since discovered their plant will be shuttered.

Despite what others are reporting, this deal is certainly not final.  With 16,000 employees becoming eligible for buyouts for carrying out non-essential duties, and new hires in noncore functions expected to get half the starting salary of an assembly line worker, there is the possibility that union employees will not ratify the agreement. 

GM's 74,000 UAW members are to vote on the contract, with voting expected to be complete by October 10.