The last car rolls off the assembly line of Janesville's General Motors plant one week from tomorrow. Unless there is an unexpected, last-second reprieve, only a handful of workers will be left at the plant after Dec. 23, to finish off a truck-producing venture with Isuzu.
And then, the plant that has produced automobiles for more than eight decades will be shuttered, perhaps forever.
And then the real impact of the plant closing will be felt in the Janesville region, which includes our readership area.
There are 1,200 workers left at the GM plant. Those jobs will be lost. Those workers will join about 3,000 others who have lost auto-related jobs in the region since June. Many more losses are sure to follow. The GM plant's closure may end up costing Rock County nearly 9,000 jobs, according to estimates compiled by Steve Deller, a UW-Madison professor of agricultural and applied economics. Deller told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that almost every sector in Rock County will suffer some job losses, everything from construction to real estate to retail to health services. Those impact is certain to spread into Green County. At Brodhead's Woodbridge Corporation, a layoff of an estimated 70 people on Dec. 23 is pending. The company makes auto seating foam.
What's already happening in the Janesville region soon may play out in a number of American communities that are home to plants for U.S. automakers. Thursday night's rejection by the U.S. Senate of a financial bailout for car makers puts the "Big Three" companies of GM, Chrysler and Ford Motor Co. in even greater peril. Some plants, including the Chrysler facility in Belvidere, Ill., have had temporary shutdowns because of plummeting car sales.
When these workers aren't getting paid, they don't spend money, and all of the businesses they patronize suffer. It's a vicious, vicious circle.
Whatever beefs lawmakers have with the auto companies and their unions, they must come to grips that allowing car makers to die would have disastrous effects that would create more of an economic tsunami than simply a ripple.
And then, the plant that has produced automobiles for more than eight decades will be shuttered, perhaps forever.
And then the real impact of the plant closing will be felt in the Janesville region, which includes our readership area.
There are 1,200 workers left at the GM plant. Those jobs will be lost. Those workers will join about 3,000 others who have lost auto-related jobs in the region since June. Many more losses are sure to follow. The GM plant's closure may end up costing Rock County nearly 9,000 jobs, according to estimates compiled by Steve Deller, a UW-Madison professor of agricultural and applied economics. Deller told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that almost every sector in Rock County will suffer some job losses, everything from construction to real estate to retail to health services. Those impact is certain to spread into Green County. At Brodhead's Woodbridge Corporation, a layoff of an estimated 70 people on Dec. 23 is pending. The company makes auto seating foam.
What's already happening in the Janesville region soon may play out in a number of American communities that are home to plants for U.S. automakers. Thursday night's rejection by the U.S. Senate of a financial bailout for car makers puts the "Big Three" companies of GM, Chrysler and Ford Motor Co. in even greater peril. Some plants, including the Chrysler facility in Belvidere, Ill., have had temporary shutdowns because of plummeting car sales.
When these workers aren't getting paid, they don't spend money, and all of the businesses they patronize suffer. It's a vicious, vicious circle.
Whatever beefs lawmakers have with the auto companies and their unions, they must come to grips that allowing car makers to die would have disastrous effects that would create more of an economic tsunami than simply a ripple.
