Tuesday, April 1, 2008

GM Beginning to Look Past American Axle

GM is beginning to remedy the problems with its shortage of parts by sourcing 30,000 parts to DANA Corp., which is a another global automotive supplier, to try and get the lines, in their plants, moving again.

In a post on Autoblog today, it would seem that the GM is realizing how much the American Axle strike is starting to affect them. With seven truck plants, one sedan assembly operation and 23 parts plants already closed and Automotive News reporting the Lordstown, Ohio plant, assembly plant of the Chevrolet Malibu, may have to close its doors by the fourth if they cannot get parts.

Auto News reported the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant, a Buick Lucerne and Cadillac DTS assembly plant, was closed Monday along with a Toledo, Ohio transmission plant, today, has shut down because of the American Axle strike and the high demand for parts.

Because of all the plant closings throughout the nation, GM needs to outsource more of their parts to other suppliers because right now they have all their eggs in one basket, which for a giant company is very unusual.

The American Axle strike should help General Motors to diversify its parts supply and not leave it in the hands of a single supplier because THINGS LIKE THIS CAN HAPPEN!

1 comment:

Jim Bauer said...

Companies love to use the argument that labor costs are too high, pension benefits are a burden to fund, maintain and administer, medical insurance costs are continually on the rise...the list goes on. But workers need these important benefits and a liveable wage in order to support their families. This is what I think many of these CEOs in corporate America are failing to understand; much of this unrest by the workers is due to top executives only recognizing the costs of the bottom tier of their workforce. The guys working on the assembly lines. The CEOs want to make their cuts at the expense of the OTHER employees (yes, CEOs are employees), rather than themselves. The truth is that these guys are millionaires. If you ask me, millionaires do not need pensions. They've made more than enough money to live very comfortably for the rest of their lives. They also can afford to pay for their own private medical insurance. They do not need to have their tax expenses paid for them (like when they get those big bonuses that will have complex and sometimes expensive tax consequences). Again, the list goes on. So why are they (the companies) paying for this stuff, especially in a time when cost appears to be a fundamental reason for denying the union's demands, and frankly the worker's needs? If companies like Axle are truly interested in lowering costs, why not start by looking into the compensation packages and over the top benefits of the guys making all of the decisions? A guy doesn't mind conceding a few things, but I don't think a guy wants to hear anything about rising costs when its coming from a millionaire who will not feel even 1/10th of the pain the worker will feel when his wages and benefits are hacked away at. I applaud the union for their resolve in this fight.