GM will close Shreveport, La., plant by June 2012

ASSOCIATED PRESS

General Motors Corp. will close its assembly and stamping plants in Shreveport, La., no later than June 2012, the company said Wednesday.

GM spokesman Chris Lee said the Shreveport operation, which employs 950 people, was added to the nine permanent plant closings, along with the idling of three others, announced when the company filed for bankruptcy protection on June 1.

Shreveport will continue to assemble Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickup trucks based upon market demand, but with production ending no later than June 2012. The plants “will not be allocated any new products,” Lee said.

The plants also assemble the commercial Hummer H3 and H3T pickup truck. GM has tentatively agreed to sell the commercial Hummer brand to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. during the third quarter. A Hummer spokesman earlier said that the buyer had planned to move the annual production of about 10,000 Hummers from South Africa to Shreveport.

Lee said that if the deal goes through, Hummer production in Shreveport would continue for a yet-to-be determined period of time that will be decided by the new owner.

It had been widely hoped that the operation would continue after it escaped the initial plant closure list released in June.

But Doug Ebey, president of the United Auto Workers Local 2166, said GM’s decision “was a big shock to us” even though the union had been “hearing rumblings for some time.”

Lee said the company felt it would be inappropriate to discuss the Shreveport operation at that time because negotiations with Sichuan Tengzhong had not been completed.