Copyright 2000 The Baltimore Sun Company
THE
BALTIMORE SUN
May 5, 2000, Friday ,FINAL
SECTION: BUSINESS ,1C
LENGTH: 763 words
HEADLINE:
GM, state leaders to talk; Meeting to address future of company's Baltimore van
plant; Auto industry
BYLINE: Ted Shelsby
SOURCE: SUN STAFF
BODY:
State officials and representatives of the General Motors Corp. will meet in
Annapolis today to discuss the automaker's Baltimore assembly plant.
"The focus of the meeting will be the future of the van plant in
Maryland," Daniel Flores, a spokesman for GM's Truck Group in Pontiac, Mich.,
said yesterday.
GM announced final plans last month to end the second
shift at its 65-year-old Broening Highway plant in mid-July, eliminating up to
1,200 jobs.
Workers and state officials are concerned that the move may
be a step toward closing the plant, the city's largest manufacturer.
GM
has said it is committed to the continued production of the Chevrolet Astro and
GMC Safari vans at the Baltimore plant only until the third quarter of 2003.
After that, the company said, the market for the aged vans, which have
not undergone a major redesign since being introduced in 1984, will determine
the plant's future. Sales of the two vans have been declining in recent years.
Last year sales totaled 134,267, down from 174,815 in 1997.
State
officials want to persuade GM to bring a new product to Baltimore. They were
successful in getting GM's Allison Transmission subsidiary to build a truck
transmission plant in White Marsh. The plant, now under construction, will
employ about 375 hourly workers and could absorb some of the workers from
Broening Highway's second shift.
When GM first disclosed its plans to
eliminate the second shift last November, state officials said they would try to
reverse the automaker's decision. But last month's announcement made it apparent
that had not been successful.
Even at half the work force, closing the
plant would be a blow to the Baltimore area economy. With its 2,400 employees,
it pumps an estimated $1 billion a year into the regional
economy and creates another 3,500 related jobs.
State officials were
tight-lipped yesterday about today's session. Michael Morrill, a spokesman for
Gov. Parris N. Glendening, called it a "private working meeting to discuss GM's
future in Maryland."
The seven-member GM delegation will be headed by
Thomas J. Davis, head of GM's Truck Group, which has jurisdiction over the
Baltimore plant.
He will be accompanied by Guy D. Briggs, vice president
and general manager of the Truck Group, and David C. Prange, manager of the
Baltimore plant.
GM will also have government relations people at the
table, along with a human resource director and a public relations
representative.
According to Flores, the state group will include
Glendening, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend; Sens. Barbara A. Mikulski and
Paul S. Sarbanes; Mayor Martin O'Malley; and Reps. Benjamin L. Cardin, Elijah E.
Cummings and Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
Richard C. Mike Lewin, secretary of
the state Department of Business and Economic Development, and David Iannucci,
deputy secretary, are also to attend.
The state delegation does not
include representation from the United Autoworkers Local 239, which represents
the vast majority of the workers at the van plant. "I wasn't invited," said
Charles R. Alfred, president of the local.
In an attempt to persuade GM
to keep the Baltimore plant open and bring in a new product, the union
renegotiated its local contract with the plant last fall to make it more
competitive with newer assembly plant in other parts of the country.
Glendening has said that the state is prepared to offer GM a major
financial incentive package to keep the plant in Maryland. Economic development
officials have declined to elaborate.
The state's trump card could be
Mikulski, who sits on a key committee that helps set fuel-efficiency
requirements for cars and trucks made in this country.
Fuel
standards, known as Corporate Average Fuel
Economy (CAF), were established in the mid-1970s in response to the
OPEC oil embargo. Since 1974, the government has been trying to raise the
standards for light trucks, including sport utility vehicles. But every year
Congress has rejected the move.
A member of the appropriations
subcommittee on transportation, Mikulski is a key vote when it comes to CAF
standards. In the past, she has voted in favor of GM's position not to raise the
requirement because of its plant in Baltimore.
Capitol Hill sources said
that if the Maryland Democrat changes her vote, she could take other votes with
her, perhaps enough to implement an increase in the fuel economy standards.
"It's been talked about in Detroit," said one GM official, who didn't
want to be identified. " The senator is a very influential person."
LOAD-DATE: May 12, 2000
