General Motors ‘Temporarily’ Shutters Missouri Plant, Extends Michigan Closure — Reopens Mexico Facility

General Motors (GM) “temporarily” closed a Missouri assembly plant and simultaneously said it would reopen a facility in Mexico, just days after Ford shifted planned U.S. production south of the border.

Via UPI:

General Motors announced Wednesday it’s cutting production of midsize pickup trucks to focus on larger vehicles and shutting down some facilities amid a semiconductor chip shortage.

The company said it’s shutting down the Wentzville Assembly plant in Missouri from Monday through April 5, and will move up scheduled downtime there by two weeks from May 24 to July 19. …

GM is also extending the current shutdown at the Lansing Grand River Assembly in Michigan. Plants closed in Kansas and Ingersoll, Ontario, will remain shuttered until mid-April, and a facility in Mexico will reopen in early April.

“GM continues to leverage every available semiconductor to build and ship our most popular and in-demand products, including full-size trucks and SUVS for our customers,” company spokesman David Barnes said.

The Missouri closure will impact production of the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickup trucks. According to the Detroit Free Press, there are 3,500 workers at Wentzville Assembly.
There are 2,000 hourly workers at the Kansas plant and about 1,400 in Lansing.

According to the UAW, impacted workers have “protections” in their contract, including supplemental pay and unemployment which amounts to nearly 80 percent of current salary and benefits.

In another blow to American workers in the weeks since Joe Biden became president, the United Auto Workers (UAW) said last week Ford would ship production from Ohio to Mexico, Breitbart News reported.

The auto union told members the Detroit-based company was moving a planned $900 million investment from Avon Lake, where 1,740 workers build F-650 and F-750 trucks.

“These contractual commitments were an enormous win for the UAW, for the great state of Ohio, the community of Avon Lake, and most importantly the members of Local 2000,” president Gerald Kariem wrote to union members.

Kariem said Ford now “intends to build the next-generation vehicle in Mexico” and the union “100 percent” rejects “the company’s decision to put corporate greed and more potential profits over American jobs and the future of our members.”

The UAW endorsed Biden in the 2020 election.

Kyle Olson is a reporter for Breitbart News. He is also host of “The Kyle Olson Show,” syndicated on Michigan radio stations on Saturdays–download full podcast episodes. Follow him on Parler.