<Table>
<DIV class=headline>Local GM plant to stop production again</DIV>
<DIV class=subheadline>Workers received week of downtime in January.</DIV>
<DIV class=publicationdate>February 17, 2005</DIV>
<DIV class=story>By
Michelle Mahfoufi
mmahfoufi@gannett.com
Starting
next week, production of the midsize pickups at Shreveport's General Motors
plant will come to a two-week halt to absorb excess inventory.
The
majority of the plant's 3,000 hourly employees, who just came off a one-week
stoppage in January for the same reason, won't report to work from Feb. 21 to
March 7.
"It's still an issue of supply and demand," plant spokeswoman
Donna McLallen said. "We have great products, but we are facing incredible
competition. ... Every other vehicle manufacturer has a new midsize truck that
competes against ours."
Affected employees receive about 75 percent of
their regular paycheck under GM's contract with United Auto Workers Local
2166.
McLallen said sales of the Chevy Colorado and GMC are increasing
but production is surpassing market demand. She would not comment on the number
of trucks produced at the local plant each month. Sales figures released by
General Motors show that 10,176 Colorados were sold in January compared to 3,016
at the same time last year. The number of Canyons sold also increased from 775
in January 2004 to 2,686 this year.
"We can't speculate on the future but
as we always do, we will continue to monitor the marketplace," McLallen said.
"The main thing is we're very lucky we have a new product coming on that's
already generating a lot of excitement."
The local plant will build the
Hummer H3 on the same line used to produce the Colorado and Canyon. Production
will begin in the second quarter of 2005, with the first H3s arriving in
dealerships in the summer. Some employees will work through the stoppage to
prepare for the H3 launch.
"This temporary downtime has absolutely
nothing to do with the launch of the Hummer H3, which is still on schedule to be
launched later this spring," McLallen said.</DIV></Table>