GM's Plans to Increase Truck Production Delayed by Parts Shortage
May 22 2020 - 10:17AM
Dow Jones News
By Mike Colias and Ben Foldy
A shortage of parts from Mexico is hampering General Motors
Co.'s plans to quickly ramp up production of high-profit pickup
trucks, according to a union official and other people familiar
with the matter, underscoring the auto industry's halting restart
after a two-month shutdown from the pandemic.
GM has delayed plans to roughly double output at its two main
U.S. pickup-truck factories by adding additional shifts of workers
next week, these people said. The auto maker doesn't yet have the
flow of parts it needs to accelerate production as planned, they
said.
The auto maker postponed plans to call back roughly 1,300
workers to its Fort Wayne, Ind., truck factory starting Tuesday for
a second eight-hour work shift, said Rich LeTourneau, an official
at United Auto Workers Local 2209, which represents workers at the
factory. The return date tentatively has been pushed back to June
1, he said.
"We continue to plan to ramp up production in a gradual
cadence," a GM spokesman said, declining to discuss specifics about
the schedule.
GM also delayed adding a second work shift at its Flint, Mich.,
pickup factory, which makes GM's largest, priciest pickup trucks,
some of the people said.
More than 1,000 additional employees had been scheduled to come
back Tuesday, but those plans have been delayed and workers haven't
been given a new callback date, they said.
U.S. auto makers are juggling supply-chain kinks and putting in
new safety protocols as they try to restart operations following an
unprecedented eight-week shutdown to prevent the spread of the new
coronavirus.
Write to Mike Colias at Mike.Colias@wsj.com and Ben Foldy at
Ben.Foldy@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 22, 2020 10:02 ET (14:02 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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