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I thought it would be interesting for people to share what's going on in their communities due to the downturn in the automotive industry. Is there an assembly plant in your area (not just Big 3)??? Are layoffs being announced? What about suppliers??? Car dealers?? Small businesses affected? Please share your community's experience here........
Oh yeah, and let's not turn this into a debate, just talk about how it affects where you live and maybe post some articles. Thanks.
I live in Northeast Ohio near Youngstown, which is near the Pennsylvania line. In our area we have a few steel mills that supply the auto industry and GM Lordstown, where they make the Cobalt and G5. We also have a ton of suppliers to Lordstown, such as Magna (Intier), Leer, Comprehensive Logistics, trucking companies, a few Delphi plants (large supplier to the whole industry), tool and die shops, etc. Obviously, many areas also have a lot of car dealerships and we have those as well.
Recently GM Lordstown announced that they are getting rid of the third shift after the new year and 2,000 people are being laid off. Their suppliers are also cutting production and from what i've heard another 500 or so are being laid off from those places. This includes my friend and one of my cousins. My friend has a partial college education and my cousin has her beauticians license and she already is doing hair on the side, but hasn't built up her clientèle, which could be a problem.
Pittsburgh Pirates and other cities with GM sponsorships for major league teams may be affected.
"GM spokesman Pete Ternes said the company "is looking at" Major League Baseball sponsorship contracts that expire at the end of the year, as part of an effort to cut the company's promotional and advertising budget 20 percent." GM ends sponsorship with Pirates, other teams
They have closed their metal stamping plant here in the burgh. "About 350 maintenance and production people worked at the plant." It had operated for 58 years and recently made parts for the Chevy Cobalt.
GM closes suburban Pittsburgh metal plant - Breaking News | Centre Daily (http://www.centredaily.com/news/breaking_news/story/1013876.html - broken link)
I heard about the stamping plant closing. There were some people from that plant inquiring about tranferring to Lordstown on the Ohio forum a few months ago. Seems the closing had been in the works before this downturn, but it's never good when people are losing good paying jobs.
California has lost some jobs due to the downturn. Southern California in particular is home to several design centers and North American headquarters for auto makers and while it is just one small industry here, it certainly isn't as big as it used to be.
* The Ford Premier Auto Group Design Center and North American headquarters is very empty now after Ford struggled with getting the brands to make a profit. The Premier Group included Jaguar, Volvo, Lincoln, Mercury, Land Rover, and Aston Martin and were located in a state of the art environmentally friendly six story building in Irvine, CA (So Cal). Land Rover, Aston Martin, and Jaguar were sold and are no longer part of Ford and only maintain some design offices in Southern California. Volvo relocated its headquarters for NA and Lincoln and Mercury are struggling and had to cut staffing.
* Chrysler decided to restructure some of its cost and closed the Chrysler Pacifica Design Center in Carlsbad, CA that designed noteworthy vehicles like the 300 sedan and Challenger muscle car. Mercedes-Benz has purchased the building and is moving their own North American Design Center into it from Irvine a few miles north.
* Nissan North American moved its headquarters to Nashville in order to save costs and expand its buildings, something it could not do in crowded Southern California. It has built a much larger state of the art building in Nashville and about 30% of the workforce went with the company, the other 70% chose to remain in the Los Angeles area.
* Saleen, a manufacture of high performance vehicles and also a modifier of Ford Mustangs has had to reduce its staff in the struggling economy and closed its retail stores for Saleen parts and accessories. The make is based in Irvine, CA.
Other automobile operations still in Southern California include: Honda Group North American Headquarters (Torrance), Honda Research & Development (Torrance), Lamborghini America (Santa Monica), Mazda North American Headquarters (Irvine), Kia North American Headquarters (Irvine), Mitsubishi North American Headquarters (Cypress), Suzuki North America Headquarters (Brea), Hyundai Design and Research Center (Fountain Valley and Irvine), GM West Coast Advanced Design Studio (Los Angeles), Volkswagen/Audi Design Studio California (Santa Monica), BMW Design Works USA (Newbury Park), Toyota CALTY Design Studio (Newport Beach), TABC Toyota Parts Manufacturing Plant (Long Beach), etc.....
The automobile industry here has also given birth to a range of other jobs that are here because of the pressence of so many automobile companies and our car culture. Road and Track Magazine (Newport Beach), Motor Trend Magazine (West Coast editors, Los Angeles), Kelley Blue Book (Irvine), J. D. Power and Associates (Westlake Village), Source Interlink Media (Irvine), etc...
Last edited by missionhome; 12-14-2008 at 10:59 AM..
Where I am even though it is in Michigan is not affected very much at all due to the auto industry. We don't have assembly plants where I am, or supply facilities either, so the effect is tiny, tiny, tiny. I know of nobody over in this area that is laid-off or out of work due to the auto industries foolishness. This side of the state is mostly Agriculture, High-tech, and medical.
Just has 216 layoffs at the local auto plant(New Process Gear, which is owned by Magna, a Canadian company):More Layoffs at New Process Gear | WTVH-TV CBS 5 Syracuse, NY | Local News (http://www.wtvh.com/news/local/36228139.html - broken link)
We have a Toyota truck plant here in San Antonio. Production has been cut by half and a shift eliminated until spring, but no employees have been laid-off. Instead, the idled shift workers are being put to work on internal continuous improvement (kaizin) projects and loaned out for community-service work... all on Toyota's nickel.
Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
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I know a guy that works at Toyota's Camry/ Avalon/ Solara/ Venza plant in Georgetown KY. He said they will still be working in January, although no cars will be made. They will be cleaning the plant and preparing the factory's garden for spring planting. Anytime you make more begonias than Camry's that's not a good sign
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