GM Transmission Plant

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• Wait, wait - where are the calls to preserve this important part of our heritage? How will generations of the future ever know that in Windsor, they used to "make" things, instead of simply pushing paper or bits and bytes around.

  I can see it now - internationalmetropolis.com, August 2110 - here are some photos of the old GM transmission plant - too bad they tore it down so we couldn't have this historical building around anymore.

  On the plus side, the new space elevator/Tim Hortons will be open in less than a month. The casino is giving away a free week on the moon - don't forget to enter the contest - just think about the casino and the nearest mental scanner will register your entry.

• Well the Comment earlier in this post about the Blob on the eastside of the old Woolco/Walmart building may be vacant and stay, is going out the door now, as when I drove pass the building on Saturday night. There was some wrecking equipment on the side wall next to the Automotive Bays with a huge hole in the building and lots of junk outside.

  As for the GM Trans Plant, the guys I have talked to said that GM plans to Idle the plant and may renovate the plant (still cheaper then clean up the property from all the chemicals in the Soil) and make something for the new ECO Cars. Right now Detroit is getting a Battery Factory, and also a few other items, and talks were in the works to have another future closed factory get restored for other parts for the new Volt and other cars like that.

• Bruce - I'm not sure what was there...

• Why not use the old GM trim plant to make locomotives, hybrid buses or light rail trains?

• The Gm trim plant has been demolished

• this was a direct attack on organized labor and it isn't done yet,
  almost , but not yet. Free trade was a great idea By Brian Bullroney and his PC's
  Great idea wasn't it?.
  where are all the politicians now,? What a bunch of liars,
  and how stupid were we to think we could ever compete with slaves.
  from other countries who worked for I/10th of what we made with no benefits or pensions.
  our government should be ashamed of what they did to Canada.
  see you at Wal-Mart brothers and sisters.

• Mick, the reference to Walmart reminds me of an interview done by one of the reporters of Time Magazine with Kid Rock at Commerica Park and when asking about the 30% unemployment in Detroit he used the analogy of Walmart. Walmart was founded by a guy who started one store. He offered what people wanted, his chain grew internationally and he became a billionaire. He then added that there are lots of people out there who spend $100K to customize a car and do it in California or Florida instead of sending it to Detroit. Detroit could be known as the customizing capital of the US. Same with Windsor. We could be the customizing capital of Canada. Yet, the Motor cities prefer to build what people don't want and then complain about their wages. If you think that you'll be competing with slaves instead of finding ways not to then you really are stupid. And there's still lots of people who'll be spending $100K to customize their cars in California and Florida, not China or India. You are to blame. Take some responsibility. Build what people want. Use what you learned working in the autosector as a stepping stone to work somewhere else or even be your own boss instead of playing the poor me victim role all the time.

• David,
  I am one of the people who will be out of a job when this plant closes. What you fail to realize is what jobs like these, unionized or not, contribute to our economy. On this very website, try and research all the other factories that have closed, try and think about the thousands upon thousands of people and families that had the fortune of having a job where you could afford to raise a family, put food on the table, drive a car and send your kids to school. Most people who work in those third world countries, or at Walmart for that matter, can barely afford to house and feed themselves. Somehow that's okay?
  As for the car companies, they are in fact building vehicles that people want. Although GM has lost tremendous market share, they still are the number 1 in vehicle sales in North America, so I question where that statement came from. I also wonder if you are you one of those people who narrow mindedly buy foreign because of preconceived notion about quality??
  Customizing cars??? What is that all about. How many people do you think that will employ. How much customizing will employees of Walmart, temp agencies or any minimum wage workers do, let alone how many of those workers can afford to own a car to begin with.
  The problem is deeper than what car people chose to buy, it’s manufacturing jobs in general. What you need to realize is that there are two things happening as we speak. First, there is reduction of our standard of living happening. It’s slow but inevitable. The other thing that is happening is the gap between the rich and the poor is growing. My 20 year old son has a job as a casual worker (I won't name the company)but it’s a highly skilled job; and he makes $17.00. That job is considered good by today's standards.
  What is wrong with making 25 or 30 dollars an hour? What is wrong with having good benefits or a pension program? What is wrong with being able to buy a house, take your family on a vacation or simply put them through school? Somehow wanting those things has become "greedy" and somehow wanting these things has become the reason we are losing these jobs to third world countries. WAKE UP EVERYONE.
  We have lost touch with the human factor. It used to be important that people had a good life. Somehow the profits of the big corporations’ or the compensation packages of the very wealthy are acceptable and drive the decisions of the day. Our lifetimes will be witness to the degradation of middle class. I only hope that our children see it come back. Somehow we need to get to where the standards of how people are treated are as important as the price you pay for a product. Where the measurement of how “Green” a product includes how much damage it did to the earth in manufacturing and how much energy the product truly wasted from beginning to delivery to your door. We (North Americans) can compete with anyone in the world as long as the playing field is the same. If China had to pay their workers a decent standard of living or comply with strict environmental laws and use a currency that is uncontrolled as we do, we can beat them hands down. We, North Americans, still have some power and influence. If we “fixed” our trading policies so that trade is fair, we could create an environment that encouraged companies to build here like they did before. Maybe some dollar stores would close and maybe workers would become more important and maybe Wal-Mart might have to pay a little more, not because of a Union, but because they need to keep their workers happy. Imagine that!

• To Dave: You're wrong. And, there's nothing wrong with making $25-$30 an hour. I never said it was. My point is that GM doesn't build cars people want and that's why they are in the mess they are in. Yesterday, I drove 15 minutes. I drove past 40 Mercedes, a dozen BMWs and half a dozen Porsches. All cars made in Germany that cost more than GM cars with wages higher than your quoted $25-30 an hour. How come Mercedes isn't in the same mess as GM? Many millions of Mercedes are sold each year. These are cars that are sold all over the world that are made in higher wage Germany. These are cars people want. We are not only losing jobs to lower wage countries but also to higher wage countries.

  How many North American made GMs are sold in Europe or even outside of North America for that matter? GM used to make their cars in Europe under the Opel brand before Magna bought them out. Why weren't they exporting their cars from North America? European car makers are exporting their cars here. What are foreign car makers in higher wage countries doing right and what are we doing wrong? Think about it. Wages are relative to consumer demand for a particular product. We are just not building what people want on an international level and that's why these local companies are going under. If you want to be paid $25-$30 an hour, do something that the market will pay you $25-$30 for, not something the market will only pay $17 an hour for, so YOU WAKE UP. If you can only make $17 an hour, that's your problem that you alone have to figure out how to resolve and if you use your head, you can. I explained how earlier.

• Very well said Dave (not David). I believe that car companies shot themselves in the foot by closing down their plants. By trying to save money by cutting staff they also got rid of the very same people who bought their product which is really what kicked them in the guts. By laying off or closing plants they also created a great deal of animosity for these companies by those laid off workers' families. So, if dad loses his job at GM, my brother and I and his kids and their kids will never buy a GM car again. Now think about that times 3,000 or 35,000 in Flint, or many many thousands in Windsor and countless other cities that were basically expanded by the people working for the auto companies.

  It's sad to see this city crumbling around us as it gets hollowed out and sold out from under our feet, but we can all thank the people at the top of these car companies for running them like shoe companies or ruler factories. People are loyal to car brands, entire families will buy the same brand for generations and that is not the case for most products we use. However their loyalty will run cold if they cant afford to buy your cars after you took their jobs away just to save a few short term dollars.

  The way to expand the auto industry is to simply build more factories and hire more workers. That way you have a constant customer base. Also, the auto companies, especially Government Motors should build other things than cars, perhaps wind turbines, water turbines, buses, trains, bicycles etc... Having a middle class is important for everyone, no matter what kind of car you drive.