General Motors will close its aging van assembly plant in Baltimore next year, affecting about 1,100 jobs, a spokesman told Reuters.
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GM spokesman Stefan Weinmann reportedly said GM told workers at the plant on Tuesday of the decision to stop production of the slow-selling Chevrolet Astro and GMC Safari.
Reuters noted that union officials at the plant, which opened in 1935, said last year that GM would close the plant in 2005 but GM had not publicly confirmed the decision until now.
“Demand (for the vans) has declined to where it is no longer viable to build those products any more in a dedicated plant,” Weinmann told the news agency. “We have decided to discontinue the vehicles and close the plant.”
Reuters said the plant employs 1,000 union workers and 100 salaried employees and GM has in the past offered jobs at other plants for workers affected by a plant shutdown – but Weinmann said the automaker has not decided on a plan for the Baltimore workers.
