>>>Clearly at $15 per hour they would not get the quality craftmanship they had with us. No way would they start over at a lower wage when we in Janesville won so many quality awards.<<<

Reality check - With task oriented training I can hire illegals/legals at 12 bucks and very high quality work. Repititious jobs are easy to train for.

Will someone give me a direct quote that can be verified from a reputable source at GM (not some local politicain/former UAW Prez that dreams big and acts small) that states GM will return. Only then will I start to believe they are CONSIDERING it.
Of course officials will say that there still is hope, that is all former employees have here. Face it Janesville, move on.

The government has all ready thrown over $50 billion of the tax payers.... errrr; borrowed $$$ from the Chinese, to the money sieve known as GM. Heck, why not just take the $50 billion and start cutting everyone who works there checks? I mean that is essentially what you are doing now in a convoluted scheme. The company will never be profitable, they will never pay back the billions of $$'s they borrowed, and the government will prop up the failed enterprise forever with borrowed or printed $$$. You are essentially going to keep people employed by running a bankrupt company that will never turn a dimes profit, and will be paying the workers with $$$$ loaned to them via the US treasury.
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Never believe it when the media says "you (the tax payer)" now own part of GM, Citi, AIG, Fannie, Freddie ext (the list grows by the day)....That, of course, is utter nonsense, as the government pissed away ALL the tax payers $$$ long ago, and everything now is on leveraging of debt via borrowed or printed $$$$. The same same leveraging that has brought down many corporate giants that many said could never fail.

Posted on November 5 at 10:33 p.m. Joker said - "Janesville is in deep trouble. Again, you heard it hear first. Major box store will be leaving the Janesville Mall after Christmas season and this will start the demise of the mall."
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You got some real good sour ces don't you!

Joke- for 'knowing' the true facts from your sour ces, you sure walk the fence. GM is coming back, GM is not coming back...... Does your head spin around too?

Lil joe, I hate to say it but you may be right. GM helped put Janesville on the map, increased population and gave workers a nice standard of living. Janesville needs to reinvent itself before it is too late. Soon, the dominoes will start to fall and it will not be pretty.

Face it folks - JANESVILLE is done - time to move on.

Face it folks - GM in Janesville is gone - time to move on.

I don't work for GM, but, I hope, that the Janesville plant is chosen as the retool site for building smaller cars.

Then add something besides the failed attempts to jab at people who, maybe they are misguided or just don't want to give up hope, still believe in a chance for Janesville. This deals with peoples lives, it is not a game. One can still plan for a new future while holding on to hope. It's bad enough GM can't be forward enough to tell people where the products will go to, playing games with peoples lives, but it is really childish what you are attempting too Joker.

As usual, the negative people have come out to bash people. You are so predictable and pathetic. Look, I am sorry you lost your jobs at GM but you need to get some help and find a new job. Bashing me and others every day will not help your anger and jealousy issues.

spark, you should know that using big words like plagiarized will make his head hurt. Apparently his mommy gave him back his internet access. Too bad.

Joker - What you think you know, could fill an entire dictionary.
Unfortunately you would have plagiarized all the information from a five year old.

Redder, that is not what the Gazette and Mike Sheridan are saying. The door is still open.

Are you kidding me. Its done people if they open a closed plant it wont be that death trap. They closed the plant because its old, its wwwwaaayyyyyy, run down stop please move on things are bad enough.

Chad, go back to drinking the UAW Kool-Aid! What you don't know could fill a book.

That was a great show!!! I miss that one.

I just love it when someone slops on the sarcasm and insensitive comments, then cry's "don't pick on me!" When I read your comments I can't help but think of Chuck Barris and hear a large "GONG" noise.

Spark - first of all, an education does not always mean higher or equitable pay. Second of all, education does not always mean you have a piece of paper to hang on the wall. Many people work jobs and do not have degrees in the field in which they work. And last, people do need education (training) when doing assembly jobs to make sure they are doing it correctly. And they get audited to make sure they know what to do. Some jobs at GM, required more intensive training. Such as torque specifications, and diagnostic repairs, both of which I have done (and actually had training from the local tech school). Quality problems occurred from NOT educating the workers in the 70's and 80's, but it became obvious that needed to change. I am not knocking education, as that is usually used to get less physical jobs, but that is not the only merit for higher pay.

Beenthere: Unless there is a specific provision in this ratified agreement you speak of, nothing ensures that the "old" workers will be making their "old" wages at the "new" plant...no matter where that plant may be geographically. There was speculation it would take 10 months to retool this plant (I find that timetable to be a little advantageous). GM has said they would reopen a plant AFTER it restructured/emerged from bankruptcy. So, we are looking at the very minimum a year from now. By that time, some "old" GM'ers will have been laid off for 2 years. UEC will have expired and since the job banks program has been eliminated....they are essentially left holding the bag--a bag that has NO ties to the "new" GM, perhaps???

PeopleRStupid: LMAO...thanks for my laugh of the day!
Joker: Really? I mean seriously, get help.

TheJoker- Did you say something? I'm sorry, I don't understand child's talk. I prefer adult conversation rather than putting little posts on all the stories that are related to try and sound like I'm funny. Seriously dude, grow up.

Unidentified, not unless the contract is renegotiated again, which I suppose the bankruptcy judge can order. The contract that was ratified by Local 95 yesterday (and being voted on by other Locals around the country), specified no wage concessions. As was pointed out in an earlier post, nothing is guaranteed, but this contract, approved yesterday, would need to be reopened and revoted upon to pay the workers any less.

Some poor guy is standing at the door of GM not knowing whether to lock up or not!!

R u serious, you are just jealous of my spot on information and inside sources. Spark, I have run circles around you before and make you look foolish. I am happy to do it again. But let's talk about the issue at hand instead of attacking me. Your negative comments will make GM think twice before they come back to Janesville.

prounion - Reality has set in and having workers at $15 an hour if they were to bring back the plant is better than having no plant here at all. Sorry, but times are a changing. No education is needed for this type of work, and by no means am I bashing the GM workers because of, I'm just stating the facts.

I've said this on previous duplicate stories, but I'll say it again. Regardless of GM, Janesville needs to concentrate their efforts elsewhere. Even if GM reopens, the wages and benefits will be half or less of the previous product line. Granted, there is a line of people for those wages, including myself. However, the standard of living and the hay days are over. Although 15 an hour will pay some bills, it's not going to support a family of 3 alone. Not with taxes being what they are in this state. Moreover, people will drop like flies with as many cut backs as GM and other auto makers have made on man power. One person will do what three used to do. Janesville needs to diversify and look towards getting high tech and bio-medical related jobs to help raise the standard of living in the area. I would welcome the news of GM reopening Janesville, but I would also welcome some alternatives.

Clearly at $15 per hour they would not get the quality craftmanship they had with us. No way would they start over at a lower wage when we in Janesville won so many quality awards.

spark-that sarcasm has a dual role...IF GM happened to reopen in Janesville-he would be first in line to say "I told you so!" or "My sources told me....".
I thought that the minute I saw him doing it over and over again on similar stories....it is to cover his asinine sense of self-importance.
Sorry to ruin it for you, Joker.

"The contract that was ratified yesterday guarantees that." No, the ratification yesterday guarantees nothing.

I admit..."forced" was the wrong word to use. I should have used a less strong word. The agreement was that they would retain their hourly pay at the rate that they were making when the plant closed. I should have stated it that way. I didn't mean to imply that people wouldn't line up to make $15 an hour. I apologize.

BeenThereDoneThat - Forced to make a $15 wage? There is a line a mile long that would fill those $15 wages in a heartbeat. GM needs to start over.
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Joker - Have you realized nobody is listening to your sarcasm yet?

MissG, whether GM reopens the plant here or elsewhere, the union employees at that plant will be called back and will continue to earn the wages that they were making when the plant closed. They will not be forced to take the lower $15 wage. The contract that was ratified yesterday guarantees that.

916, why are you saying we should move on? GM is coming back to Janesville with a retooled plant. UAW Local 95 approved changes and will soon be back to work.

I can't see banking on GM reopening anything at this point--They have already come out and said that there will be 5 more plant closures by 2012.....Let's move on people--there will be life after GM as far as Janesville is concerned......

GM was stupid to close the Janesville plant. It's the only plant of them all, that GM has fully paid for.

So, it's likely, that of the 3 plants in the running to re-open, the Janesville plant has a better shot. It may need an overhaul to accomodate compact cars, but it's still a paid for building, that is doing nothing but losing GM money sitting there. And, it's lease free. It's kind of an obvious choice.

Honestly, I think GM had a plan to re-open this one all along. For along time, GM has wanted to shut down the Janesville plant, the economy gave them a good reason to do so. And, then it happened that they started heading towards bankruptcy. I think when they reopen, alot of the previous employees will have an option to take a lower salary, or they will just hire new kids to come in and work for 15.00 an hour. They cleared alot out by offering the buy out to employees making higher salaries, and alot of the employees, in fear the plant closing, took it.

Face it, GM is DONE. They are heading for Chapter 11. All of you fools that rest false hope in GM ever returning to Janesville are living a pipe dream. Instead of wasting away and living off the pity of others - get out and retrain and re-educate and find a better job.

I heard word again that Janesville will hear something very soon about the new product. They are working out the details and there is talk of doing the stamping on site. Many will remember this was talked about before, they want to do this at the same time they update the paint department.

I wish every headline involving the plant didn't have the word "shutter" in it. Can't anyone use a thesaurus anymore?

FutureGMretiree...I certainly hope that you are kidding. If not, then you were NOT at the same first vote meeting that my husband was at. No hints of a new product in Janesville were made at that meeting. Even Dohner said that he wasn't banking on it.

ljs64... Favre was just traded from the Vikings to the Colts!!

Okay people....let's put a ton of hope in a bag of ......... poo. There will be no way in the lovely world in which we reside that GM will ever......... and I mean ..........EEEEEEVER!!!!!! be present as a factory force in J-town again. Let's be real folks. The S.S. GM has sunk! Abandon ship and get on with your lives! The longer you wait, the less the jobs that are left from your Union Brethren, since they all bailed on you last month. Solidarity!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Lost city, thank you for the update about the announcement of GM coming back to Janesville. I wish they would just announce it now so all of the laid off GM workers can get back to work at the plant right away!

Whatever happens, I wish all involved the best of luck in the future. :o)

I thought GM was closing 12,14,16 more plants. A transfer would be a different seat on the Titanic. The big decision for us, do we take the buy out and hopefully find employment elsewhere, or hope on a 'wink'. I understand we have 45 days to decide.

You can only transfer if there is an opening. How many do you think there are?

Here we go beating the dead horse again.

The tooling that was sold was primarily maintenance equipment from skilled trades (ie: welders, table saws, ladders, scaffolding, concrete floats, levels, welding tables, etc). With the True North 100% COA, skilled trades manpower will be drastically cut to just three groups: Electrical, Mechanical and Tool & Die. Even then, most facility maintenance will be outsourced to a third party. Some of that equipment that was auctioned last week was well over 90 years old.

Best of luck to Janesville. Hopefully there will be a new product on the horizon (probably after 10 months of downtime to retool if Janesville is chosen as the idled plant to reopen).

Well, yeah. As long as they winked at you, go ahead and make life altering decisions on that wink. Yes, that would be a sound idea.

wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more...

I seriously would not allow "the wink" to be the determining factor on whether or not I took a transfer......If you have an opportunity for another position in another city, you should take it........

I just got a phone call from a friend who is working on the details of this plan and he said that Janesville should expect an annoucement in the next few weeks. GM was calling the plan the Fort Wayne Move, it worked for them in the past. They sold off the old tooling to make room for new equipment for the smaller product.

I was at the vote first session they gave the wink. we are getting the small car they already auctioned off the junk from the plant Now we wait,turn down transfers and hope they are not lying again to us.we are the only TRUE NORTH plant

If the gm plant opens back is will make the Chevy 2011 Chevrolet Beat (Spark)
2011 Chevrolet Orlando
2011 Chevrolet Cruze
2011 Chevrolet Volt
This could be true but i am not sure

I have not ever worked for GM but I "hope" they come back to Janesville. Even at 1/2 of their former wage these jobs will still pay more than unemployment and last longer. I am actually optimistic about our State as Badger Care levels the field in regards to health care. As long as these companies can keep people at or near the poverty level, they are eligible for Badger Care and undoubtedly a whole host of other social programs that someone making more probably would not meet the income guidelines for.
Any jobs are good jobs in these troubling times! I am thinking about finishing my masters just to maintain my standard of living. How disheartening it was to read the article about GM skilled trade workers applying at Buffalo Wild Wings. My heart goes out to all seeking employment.

I can't believe how negative people are on this board. You GM bashers need to get a life. Why are you people doubting that GM will not come back to Janesville. The door is still open. The GM task force and the Gazette said so.

Good one ljs64. Better yet, Cubs win the world series....

Just let the Janesville GM plant R.I.P.

Favre just signed with the Vikings!!!!!!!!!

GM would be stupid to bring production back to Janesville. The cost of living is too high and the taxes are outrageous.

Will anybody leave the corpse alone?

You're right zoom. I saw a "friend" over the weekend who was going "to ride it out." GM's CEO Fritz Henderson could send him a personal letter himself telling him GM Janesville will NEVER reopen, and he would not believe it. Some people think having hope is synomous with being blind.
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Until Detroit says which plant will get the new product, there will be hope. However, in the interim, people (GM and non-GM) should continue FORWARD with their lives. No one can will "it" back to "life" no matter how bad you want it.

hey angry_again . you might as well stay angry and wake up they won't open this plant.

dust off your work boots and wash up the lunch pales, and get ready.... not.

My only concern with all the speculation is that it gives false hope to those who are reluctant to move on. Will those people eventually be a drain on community resources while they wait around, hoping the plant will retool, and after their benefits have run out?

This smells like a carrot to get the local Unions to agree to the new contract terms, which are in GM's favor.

**sigh**


I agree with Hannah, GM IS GONE! The sooner people can open their eyes and realize that, the sooner people will be willing to look for something new for Janesville, instead of waiting for GM to come back.

"Also it has been made public a long while ago that GM cant even sell this plant because they have used it as collateral for loans etc."

Never say never. They just need permission to sell it, like they already received to auction off the contents.

hannah, FYI, a leaky roof if a very common issue in factories. I would be hard pressed to find a plant that doesn't have a few leaks in the roof.

Those "tiny thoughts" are frustratin' aren't they hannah.
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Whats a roove?

Hannah,
Yea, it’s an old plant, but its PAID FOR! Its one of the only plants GM actually OWNS fully, and it is big enough to produce those kind of numbers of units. Also it has been made public a long while ago that GM cant even sell this plant because they have used it as collateral for loans etc. It’s all about which local government offers the biggest incentives to GM.
What good it is to be negative and just dismiss all hopes of a line coming back to Janesville? Sometimes when things are worst, hope is all you have. I’m not saying everyone should count on it, and not go on with life as if it were not ever going to reopen but there is only good to come from a positive attitude about it.
¾ of the posts on here will be “get over it its not going to reopen”, but heck with them, it would sure do a lot of good for Rock County if it were to reopen here.

Great news! I am so happy that GM is coming back to Janesville! Does anyone know when they will begin hiring back the workers?