Jindal addresses layoff

• By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jul 29, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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SHREVEPORT — The tone of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s visit to north Louisiana changed abruptly Monday when General Motors Corp. laid off about 760 workers at its truck factory.

Jindal started his day by posing for photographs and shaking hands at a series of town hall meetings in the north Louisiana towns of Dubach, Farmerville and Mer Rouge.

He ended the day in Shreveport, where he hastily called a meeting with the GM truck plant manager and Mayor Cedric Glover after learning of the layoffs, beginning in late September.

The facility builds midsize pickup trucks and the H3 Hummer.

The shutdown of a production shift at the Shreveport plant, which employs about 2,000 people, came on the heels of GM announcing sales had dropped 16 percent for the first half of this year, largely because of record-high gasoline prices and a weak overall economy.

GM spokesman Tony Sapienza told The Associated Press that the closures in Shreveport and other GM plants would trim output of large vehicles by about 117,000 annually.

“There was really nothing Shreveport or the state could have done,” Jindal said.

The governor said he would travel to Detroit to meet with the president of GM North America about possible state incentives to return the facility to full employment and would consider calling a special session for the Legislature to approve those incentives. For instance, Stephen Moret, secretary of the state Department of Economic Development, said the state could support an investment that would convert the equipment and processes to allow the plant to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Jindal originally traveled to north Louisiana for three back-to-back town hall meetings. More than 100 people greeted him at each of his stops — a community center decorated with poultry festival posters, a National Guard armory and a tractor store.

The problems of farmers and small businesses dominated the discussions in the three rural towns.

Dubach poultry grower Angie Tyler’s hand shot up like a rocket after Jindal wrapped up his opening remarks at the Scott Hamilton Warehouse outside Ruston.

Apologizing for her nervousness, Tyler stood and asked in a shaky voice for help.

“We’re having such a big crisis,” she said. “There are a lot of farmers who are going to lose everything.”