Janesville Assembly Plant

Janesville Assembly Plant is a former automobile factory owned by General Motors located in Janesville, Wisconsin. Opened in 1919, it was the oldest operating GM plant when it was largely idled in December 2008, and ceased all remaining production on April 23, 2009. The demolition of the plant began in April 2018.

Janesville Assembly Plant
Janesville Assembly Plant in 2009
BuiltMay 1, 1919 (1919-05-01)
LocationJanesville, Wisconsin
IndustryAutomotive industry
Productscars and trucks
Employees7,000 workers at its peak in 1970
Volume4,800,000 sq ft (446,000 m³)
Owner(s)General Motors
DefunctApril 23, 2009 (2009-04-23)
Janesville Assembly's chimney

The plant covers 4,800,000 square feet (446,000 m³).[1] It employed around 7,000 workers at its peak in 1970, but was down to about 1,200 when it ceased production of GM vehicles in December 2008.[2][3]

Samson Tractor Division

In 1918, the Samson Tractor division of General Motors was formed from the merger of Samson Tractor of California and the Janesville Machine Company, a farm implement manufacturer.[4] A Samson Tractor Division plant employing 3,000 workers was opened in Janesville in 1919, with the first tractor produced on May 1, 1919.[5] A farm depression that started in 1920 forced Samson to curtail production and lay off more than 1,000 workers.[4] Samson eventually went bankrupt.[5] Although General Motors wanted to abandon the Janesville plant, its general manager, Joseph A. Craig, convinced the company to stay, and in 1920 GM transferred its truck production from Flint, Michigan to the Janesville plant.[5]

Chevrolet plant

Chevrolet began producing automobiles at the plant in 1923.[6] In the same year, an adjacent Fisher Body plant began construction.[5] Production at the factory was halted during the Great Depression for about a year. In 1937 union organizers led a sit-down strike, part of a nationwide series of strikes at GM, which quickly resulted in a national contract.[5] During World War II, the Janesville plants were taken over by General Motors' Oldsmobile Division, and produced artillery.[7]

Production of automobiles resumed following the war. In 1953, a second shift was added to both the Chevrolet and the Fisher Body factories.[5] In April 1967, the 100 millionth GM vehicle was produced at the Chevrolet plant.[5]

View of Janesville Assembly Plant from across Rock River
North entrance of Janesville Assembly Plant in 2009

In 1969, the Chevrolet and Fisher Body factories joined to form the General Motors Assembly Division.[5] Peak production at the Janesville Assembly occurred in 1977, when there were 7,100 employees, and 274,286 cars and 114,681 trucks were produced.[5]

In the 1980s General Motors moved large car production from Janesville and started making subcompact J-cars, such as the Chevrolet Cavalier. In 1987 the company moved Janesville's pickup line to the Fort Wayne, Indiana assembly plant.[5] Local efforts resulted in GM moving medium-duty truck and full-size sport-utility production from plants in Michigan to Janesville.[5] By 1992 it was the only GM plant manufacturing large SUVs. In 2002 GM returned Janesville's medium-duty truck production to Flint, Michigan.

Most recently the Janesville Assembly built full-size SUVs.[7] It was one of three plants producing the GMT900 trucks, such as the Chevrolet Suburban. It began building the next-generation short-wheelbase GMT900 trucks in January 2006 and the long-wheelbase GMT900 trucks in March of that year and an overtime shift was added to meet demand. From 1994 until 2009, the plant also produced medium-duty trucks for Isuzu under its partnership with GM.[8]

In 2006, the Janesville GM Assembly plant achieved a milestone of producing more than 500,000 full-size sport utility vehicles with E85 FlexFuel capable engines. The Janesville employees were recognized in a ceremony at the plant that included Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle (D).

In 2007, discussion of greenhouse gas fuel emissions regulations sparked a dialogue about the future of the Janesville GM plant.[9] That same year United Auto Workers Local 95 participated in a strike at the facility.[10]

Decommissioning

In 2008, fuel prices, the related slow sales of SUVs, and the economy resulted in GM cutting back full-time production at the Janesville plant to a single shift. Combined with an ongoing employee buy-out program, layoffs totaled around 750 jobs in July 2008.[11] During GM's annual shareholder meeting on June 3, 2008, CEO Rick Wagoner announced that the Janesville assembly plant would close by 2010, along with three other GM factories, and could close sooner if the market dictated.[12] The cutbacks announced, along with other changes, were expected to save the North American division $1 billion per year starting in 2010.[13] GM extended its annual summer shutdown an additional two weeks and planned another ten weeks of shutdown for the remainder of 2008 because of excess inventories of SUVs made at the plant.[14]

External image
"Last day at GM" Janesville Gazette photos from December 23, 2008

In October 2008, GM announced that the production of SUVs at the Janesville Assembly would end December 23, 2008.[15][16] On that day workers gathered at a ceremony with a banner reading "Last Vehicle off the Janesville Assembly Line".[17] The last GM vehicle produced, a black 2009 Chevrolet Tahoe, was donated to the United Way of North Rock County, which raffled the vehicle off.[18]

57 production employees continued assembly work at the Janesville Assembly until April 23, 2009, completing the GM/Isuzu light truck partnership and then an additional 40 to 50 "skilled trade employees" worked to decommission the plant.[19]

2015 and beyond

General Motors placed the factory on standby until at least 2015 when the company and employee unions negotiate a new contract. The factory was one of three — along with Orion Assembly and Spring Hill Manufacturing - that General Motors kept on standby during their bankruptcy. It was the only one still on standby status in 2014. The factory can only be completely closed by agreement of both General Motors and the United Automobile Workers.[20]

As of January 2016, GM had signed a new contract with the United Auto Workers that cleared the way for selling the Janesville plant.[21] Water or ground contamination on the north and south sides of the plant have delayed the sale of the plant. GM was working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to clean up that area.[22] As of February 2016, GM was working with CBRE Group of Los Angeles to market the 250 acre site (excluding the contaminated area on the north side of the site) on a global market, hoping to have a buyer by 2017.[23]

Demolition of the plant began in 2018. [24]

Former products

See also

List of GM factories

References
  1. General Motors. Janesville Assembly fact sheet Archived October 25, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. Accessed June 27, 2008.
  2. James P. Leute. "Thursday is last day of production as Isuzu line comes to end" Archived August 1, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Janesville Gazette, April 21, 2009.
  3. "State offered $195 million in failed bid for GM plant". Wisconsin State Journal. July 7, 2009. Archived from the original on 2009-07-10. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
  4. "Through the years: Chronicling the history of GM in Janesville" Archived August 1, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Janesville Gazette, December 22, 2008. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  5. Mike Dupre'. "GM has long, rich history in Janesville" Archived August 2, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Janesville Gazette, June 3, 2008. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  6. Goldstein, Amy (2018-11-30). "Perspective : When GM closes a plant, workers lose their jobs. But the city loses its spirit". Washington Post. Retrieved 2018-12-02.
  7. "Can GM's oldest plant survive latest cutbacks?". Detroit News. Archived from the original on January 21, 2013. Retrieved June 14, 2005.
  8. "ISUZU: GM-Isuzu Relations". Isuzu. Archived from the original on 2008-02-02. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
  9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-08-01. Retrieved 2012-08-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link). The Janesville Gazette, November 3, 2007.
  10. CNNMoney.com. . September 25, 2007.
  11. Barry Adams (April 29, 2008). "Janesville GM plant cutting 750 jobs". Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
  12. "GM closing Janesville assembly plant". The Business Journal. June 3, 2008.
  13. General Motors Press Conference - Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Rick Wagoner, General Motors Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Wilmington, Delaware. June 3, 2008.
  14. Janesville Gazette. Janesville GM plant targeted for downtime Archived September 7, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. June 24, 2008.
  15. The Capital Times. GM to close Janesville plant on December 23 2008. October 13, 2008.
  16. Jim Leute, "GM employees get official word," Janesville Gazette, October 13, 2008.
  17. "Last day at GM". The Janesville Gazette, December 23, 2008.
  18. Jim Leute and Stacy Vogel. "Retired GM worker wins the last Tahoe off the line" Archived August 1, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Janesville Gazette, February 25, 2009. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  19. The Janesville Gazette. GM Thursday is last day of production as Isuzu line comes to end Archived August 1, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. April 21, 2009.
  20. Leute, Jim (June 30, 2013). "Analysts: 2015 could be telling year for Janesville GM plant". Janesville Gazette. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
  21. "Our Views: GM redevelopment is 'seminal' issue in Janesville's future (Editorial)". Gazette Extra. Janesville, WI. January 16, 2016.
  22. Schultz, Frank (December 18, 2015). "General Motors looking to sell Janesville plant within a year". Gazette-Extra.
  23. "GM expects to find buyer within a year for former car plant in Janesville". Channel 3000. Madison, WI. February 2, 2016. Archived from the original on February 3, 2016. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
  24. "Demolition of former GM plant has begun, with the state giving Janesville $500,000 to help". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 2018-12-02.

Further reading
  • Goldstein, Amy. Janesville: An American Story. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016.

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