The Call Up: GM's Truck Plants Are 'All Hands on Deck'

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

According to a report in the Detroit Free Press, General Motors’ truck plants now resemble Tesla plants on the eve of the end of a fiscal quarter.

The need to crank out as many pickups as possible — essential for replenishing a depleted inventory while boosting flagging sales figures — has apparently brought both management and laid-off workers to the assembly line.

The report claims GM plans to call back hundreds of formerly laid-off workers in August to offset a manpower shortage born of several reasons, one of them being COVID-19. Freep says Fort Wayne Assembly in Indiana is shy about 1,000 workers, some 200 of them because of the coronavirus. Extra workers are also needed in Flint, Michigan, and Arlington Assembly in Texas.

The once-unemployed GM workers would be walking into permanent jobs, union leaders have been told.

It seems the need is most pressing at Fort Wayne, however. The plant, which builds the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra light-duty pickups, is in danger of not meeting its daily targets, one source claimed, with plant staff apparently going to great lengths to ensure the line doesn’t grind to a halt.

“They’re at full schedule, but they have every single person on that assembly line, including management, and management is not supposed to be on the line,” the source told Freep. “It’s all hands on deck, just to build trucks.”

News of the worker call-up will be music to the ears of employees expected to be laid off at the end of the month at GM’s Spring Hill, Tennessee assembly plant, home to a brace of Cadillac crossovers and the GMC Acadia. There, GM’s cutting a third shift to align production with tepid demand. Same goes for workers laid off from Detroit-Hamtramck.

While the automaker wouldn’t admit to management joining workers on the assembly line, it did say problems persist due to COVID-19.

“We are operating our plants as efficiently as possible while accommodating team members who are not reporting to work due to concerns about COVID-19 in the community,” GM spokesman David Barnas told the publication.

[Image: General Motors]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Dukeisduke Dukeisduke on Jul 15, 2020

    Because what the country needs is more ugly trucks.

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    • SSJeep SSJeep on Jul 16, 2020

      @Lorenzo There is a massive shortage of Silverado and Sierra trucks nationwide. Dealers near me that would normally have 50 on the lot might have 5 today... if they are lucky.

  • AVT AVT on Jul 16, 2020

    I think a lot of it has to do with credit lending for these items. Since covid, getting an auto loan (especially if your credit was not in the good range) became a lot more difficult. In general, ram buyers tend to be lower on the fico spectrum than buyers of Ford and chevy's. I know an individual who was looking at a 2500 Laramie but got rejected on the loan once covid happened. Ford got hit hard with supplier shortages as part of covid (in particular they're aluminum supply chain). My guess is they are prioritizing f150's over HD's until they get back up to speed. Chevy is a decent middle ground between price, performance, and features. Having that balance is what is allowing them to move the metal (that and an apparently highly dedicated workforce if they got management working hand in hand with everyone else to build product). I wonder if ford or fca will do something similar?

  • Lorenzo Heh. The major powers, military or economic, set up these regulators for the smaller countries - the big guys do what they want, and always have. Are the Chinese that unaware?
  • Lorenzo The original 4-Runner, by its very name, promised something different in the future. What happened?
  • Lorenzo At my age, excitement is dangerous. one thing to note: the older models being displayed are more stylish than their current versions, and the old Subaru Forester looks more utilitarian than the current version. I thought the annual model change was dead.
  • Lorenzo Well, it was never an off-roader, much less a military vehicle, so let the people with too much money play make believe.
  • EBFlex The best gift would have been a huge bonfire of all the fak mustangs in inventory and shutting down the factory that makes them.Heck, nobody would even have to risk life and limb starting the fire, just park em close together and wait for the super environmentally friendly EV fire to commence.
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