It wasn't a great week

Last week was quite a news week for a GM town, and not much of the news was good.
The most dramatic headline came on Thursday, announcing the loss of the third shift at the General Motors Lordstown assembly and fabricating plants. The plants' product, primarily the Chevrolet Cobalt, is selling well -- the first- or second-fastest moving car GM has, depending on the month or quarter being examined -- but the plant is so efficient that it is still producing more cars than the market will bear. The salvation of the third shift would have come with the assignment of production of a Saturn model to the plant, but that fell through.
Mixed blessing
Also during the week, General Motors employees were briefed on the retirement and separation benefits being offered workers in an effort to cut the company's U.S. work force. That program could be a mixed blessing for the Valley. It will provide an opportunity for hundreds of younger and middle-aged workers at the Lordstown complex to keep their jobs, despite the loss of the third shift. But it will inevitably result in an overall decrease in GM's $675 million payroll in the Valley.
Such decreases don't only affect local GM employees. There is a trickle-down that starts at the plant, radiates out to primary and secondary suppliers and then to businesses, governments by way of their tax receipts and charities that have to cope with lessening pledges of support.
Meanwhile, other communities and other segments of GM's work force are feeling the effects of worldwide competition. GM announced a second round of cuts in its white-collar engineering staff in Michigan. Some of the work will be shifted to emerging markets such as Brazil, where GM is hiring engineers to develop its next-generation small pickup truck. That tends to redefine the term GM town, doesn't it?