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Bowling Green Corvette Plant Not Among 5 GM Closings

WKYU.org

General Motors announced on Nov. 26 the closing of five plants. The Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky is not among the five set to cease production next year.

General Motors is calling the closing of five plants a "transformation" and in its corporate announcement said the company is going to focus on trucks, crossovers, SUVs and electric vehicles.

In the announcement, GM made no mention of the iconic Corvette that’s been produced only in Bowling Green since 1981. GM Detroit-based spokeswoman Kim Carpenter said the Bowling Green facility is not impacted by the Nov. 26 announcement.

 

Carpenter said GM offered a voluntary separation package to 18,000 eligible employees last month, but she did not have details on whether anyone at the Bowling Green facility had been offered that package or accepted it. 

She said the company has not announced layoffs, although the corporate announcement said the global workforce of salaried and salaried contract workers will be cut by 15 percent, including a 25 percent cut in GM executives.

Bloomberg is estimating that GM will cut 14,000 jobs.

A spokesperson at the United Auto Workers Local 2164 in Bowling Green said about 800 employees at the Corvette plant are union members. According to GM spokeswoman Renee Rashid-Merem, the workforce at the Bowling Green Corvette assembly plant includes approximately 140 salaried and 660 hourly employees. 

The UAW Local 2164 spokesperson said employees have not heard from GM headquarters of any impact on Bowling Green from the shutdown at other locations.

The GM plants to be closed are in Maryland and Ohio, as well as two in Michigan and one in Canada. Those plants produce sedans, as well as the Chevy Cruze compact and the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid. 

Rhonda Miller began as reporter and host for All Things Considered on WKU Public Radio in 2015. She has worked as Gulf Coast reporter for Mississippi Public Broadcasting, where she won Associated Press, Edward R. Murrow and Green Eyeshade awards for stories on dead sea turtles, health and legal issues arising from the 2010 BP oil spill and homeless veterans.
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