Jindal meets with GM
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Another round of layoffs at General Motors’ Shreveport plant is unlikely, Gov. Bobby Jindal said Friday after meeting with company officials in Detroit.
The auto manufacturer still plans to move forward with the production of the Hummer H3T pickup in Shreveport, he said.
That was the good news that emerged from Jindal’s talks with GM’s president, Troy Clarke.
However, the governor departed Detroit without resolving how to save the jobs of more than 700 Shreveport workers who will become unemployed next month.
He said GM still is reeling from the decline in SUV and truck sales, especially in the Hummer line. GM reported a $15.5 billion loss in the most recent quarter.
“GM’s got to make some corporate level decisions about product mix,” Jindal said.
In the future, he said, auto plants will need to have a much more flexible manufacturing capacity to react to changes in consumer patterns.
The governor’s trip coincided with an announcement that GM plans to spend millions of dollars on an Ohio plant to build a new small car called the Chevrolet Cruze.
Converting the Shreveport plant into a facility for more fuel efficient vehicles would require a similar significant investment, Jindal said.
He said he is offering the automaker incentives, including cash, to make the Shreveport facility viable.
Jindal said GM spent more than $1 billion on the Shreveport plant before gas prices soared.
“There is certainly a good opportunity for us to partner with GM and expand the investment,” he said.
GM’s press office released a statement saying the discussion was constructive.
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