May came with low Cruze sales, better GM plant announcements

By Kalea Hall | June 2, 2017 at 12:07a.m.

LORDSTOWN

May was a mixed month for news at the General Motors Lordstown Assembly Complex.

While retail sales, or individual sales to customers, of the Lordstown-built Cruze were down 24.8 percent year-over-year to 9,950 from 13,238 sold in May 2016, union leaders were able to postpone a deceleration in the assembly-line speed, saving jobs, officials said.

Also, the complex won two UAW/GM People Make Quality Happen Team Awards.

“It feels good that our team is working together to make sure our customers are getting the very best product,” said Glenn Johnson, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112.

“Through all the movements of people being bumped around, they are still able to maintain and give a quality product,” added Robert Morales, president of UAW Local 1714.

GM’s May total sales were 237,364 vehicles, down about 1 percent from last year. GM’s crossovers posted strong sales across all the automaker’s U.S. brands.

In total, there were 13,309 sedan Cruzes sold and 3,811 Mexico-built Cruze Hatchbacks – for total sales of 17,120.

GM has cut back on production of the Cruze this year because of consumers moving away from compact and midsize cars.

“I don’t think that’s a trend that will go away anytime soon,” said Jessica Caldwell, senior analyst for Edmunds.com. “It’s definitely a struggle. It’s a transition market in which everyone wants something a little bigger. It’s just going to be a tough market for those types of vehicles.”

In May, union leadership met with GM officials and were able to postpone the planned line slowdown that would have led to more layoffs. The slowdown was to occur after a three-week extended production shutdown in July.

In January, the Lordstown plant lost its third shift, costing more than 600 jobs on the assembly side and 235 on the fabrication side.

Preventing the line slowdown will help the plant meet the benchmarks the company wants, union officials said.

On Thursday, plant employees were informed of the postponement and of other business.

“There was talk about an overview of the state of the business and some of the opportunities we have to make ourselves better,” Johnson said. “Right now, our direct run rate is improving daily. We are getting our cars out on time to our customers.”

As for the team awards, the East Plant won the “Best of the Best” award among all GM U.S. assembly operations. Officials said the UAW/GM award recognizes problem-solving, quality and cost effectiveness. The West Plant received honorable-mention recognition among U.S. metal operations.

Overall, U.S. new-vehicle sales were flat in comparison with last year, as analysts expected.

Ford Motor Co.’s overall U.S. sales for May 2017 totaled 241,126 vehicles, a 2.2 percent gain compared with last year.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles U.S. LLC reported sales of 193,040 units, a 1 percent decrease compared with sales in May 2016.

American Honda Motor Co. Inc. reported total May sales of 148,414 Honda and Acura vehicles, an increase of 0.9 percent over May 2016.

Toyota Motor North America reported its U.S. May 2017 sales of 218,248 units, a decrease of 0.5 percent from a year ago on a volume basis.