Quote:
Originally posted by AZ-Ted:
To me, it makes no sense that they can't simply retool these plants to make the smaller cars that they say everyone is gravitating towards. Are these plants simply viewed as extra (and unwanted) capacity?
They've got a couple of things against them, from what I'm understanding:

  • Ohio's taxation structure might not be all that favorable for manufacturing businesses
  • The Unions here are getting a much higher wage rate than they might be able to get elsewhere.
  • There're hints and allegations that the Union workers here are very anti-GM and as such, quality and productivity suffers drastically.
  • The plants themselves are rather old. It might make more economic sense to actually build new rather than retool just at face value here.

They'll still face the normal start-up quality issues, but it might make financial sense to just start elsewhere with a fresh new workforce.