General Motors Closes Willow Run Plant

Back in June 2009, General Motors rolled out what was considered its biggest plant closure strategy to cut costs, putting the name of the Willow Run site in Michigan on the list. The factory was scheduled to go offline this month and, because GM's plan went as it should, the powertrain facility officially closed its doors last week. The 5-million square foot construction produced its last powertrain on December 15, AutoWeek writes, with the 300 workers to retire, transfer to another factory or go on layoff.

The factory was initially owned by Ford Motor Co., but was purchased by Kaiser-Fraser Corporation in 1945 to produce vehicles and farm equipment. General Motors finally took over control of the site in 1953, mostly because the American manufacturer was searching for a location to build powertrains after a fire burned its HydraMatic factory to the ground.

The aforementioned source notes that General Motors has already offered buyouts for workers at the factory, with the programme to end on March 1. Each worker is offered $60,000 to retire or leave the company voluntarily, but data on how many workers have taken the offer is not available.

As for the future of the plant, it is yet unknown. Nobody wants to buy it, so the site will become the responsibility of a trust appointed to manage what General Motors leaves behind during its restructuring process.

“The trusts are supposed to be in place by the first quarter 2011,” said Tim Yost, Motors Liquidation spokesman. “Big plants like these are hard to sell even in good economic times.”