GM's Janesville plant ceases operation this week

The current economic crisis is effecting many major companies. The automotive industry seems particularly hard hit, with several plants closing all across the nation, and hundreds of workers losing their jobs.

One plant in particular, the General Motors plant in Janesville, Wisconsin closes this week amidst a bit of irony.

The Janesville plant was GM's large truck and SUV facility. Not to dwell on how shortsighted GM or the rest of the American auto industry was in producing these big behemoths without doing any research and development into alternate fuel vehicles, it is noteworthy to mention that all work GM had done on electrical vehicles was stopped in the 1990s and completely forgotten.

Just before Christmas about 1,200 workers were let go from the Janesville plant and only 100 workers stayed on to finish an order on some light duty trucks for Isuzu.

Thursday, April 23, most of those workers will be let go and a skeletal crew will remain on to shutdown the plant.

Across America 1,600 GM workers will also lose their jobs as the automaker tries to cut costs.

Ironically, today is a significant day in the history of General Motors in Janesville.

On April 21st, 1967, a blue, two-door Chevrolet Caprice rolled off the assembly line in Janesville. Among those waiting to greet the vehicle were GM President James M. Roche and Wisconsin Lt. Governor Jack B. Olson. What made this particular car special was it was GM's 100 millionth vehicle.

The Janesville plant has had a long and distinguished association with GM going all the way back to 1918 when they first started building tractors.

Now, that plant is all but closed; the reasons, the economy or short-sighted planning, matter little and playing the blame game serves no good purpose. Sadly, its the end of an era and a proud manufacturing facility that employed generations is now gone.