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GM looks at adding February OT shifts
LORDSTOWN
The General Motors Lords-town plant is tentatively scheduled to add Saturday overtime production days in February.
Workers are scheduled to begin receiving overtime hours every other Saturday starting after Feb. 1, and those additional days are expected to continue throughout the next 40 weeks. The company has sent a letter to suppliers informing them they should prepare for the increased volume. The increased production is based on expected sales for the Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze.
The situation sounds better on paper than it is in reality for plant workers, at least at this time, said Glenn Johnson, president of United Auto Workers 1112.
“The letter they send out is to let suppliers know and prepare for what they hope is going to happen. [That’s] the best-case scenario,” he said.
There is only one overtime day in the middle of February that is on the plant’s hard schedule, Johnson said. The rest of GM’s planned overtime days remain on the plant’s “soft” schedule.
The company does not comment on the plant’s production schedule, said Tom Mock, communications manager for the GM Lords-town Complex and Parma Metal Center.
“I can say that we build to market demand,” he said.
Sales of the vehicle have been good with the exception of a few down months (August, September and October), said Robert Morales, president of UAW 1714. The diesel Cruze also is selling well.
“Union members at this time of year are looking for any overtime they can get,” he said.
There are people who still remember the recession of 2008-09, but the plant has recovered, Morales said.
“We’ve always said if we can get the American people inside of a Cruze, we’ll sell cars,” he said.
The Cruze broke out of a three-month slide in terms of sales in November with an increase of 8.3 percent over the previous November. It was the best November sales month in the history of the Cruze. For most of the year, Cruze sales have been ahead of the 2012 pace, the previous best year for the vehicle.
The local plant does not appear to have been impacted by decisions GM has made regarding overseas production.
Chevrolet has confirmed that 2015 will be its last year in Europe, according to Highlight Press. Vehicles including the Cruze will no longer be on sale in Europe in 2016. The Cruze sold in Europe is built in South Korea, not at the Lordstown plant.
The Wall Street Journal also wrote that GM plans to shift production in Asia including cuts in production in South Korea and “a likely end to production in Australia.”
The production at the Lordstown plant is solely for the North American market, Mock said.