General Motors Corp. is discussing selling its medium-duty truck plant in Flint, MI to Isuzu Motors, according to union officials, the Associated Press has reported.
Mark Hawkins, chairman of United Auto Workers Local 598 in Flint—which represents the 522 hourly and salaried workers at the plant--told the Detroit Free Press that negotiations are ongoing between Isuzu and GM over the commercial trucks built at the facility.
Todd Bloom, vp of fleet operations & marketing for Isuzu Commercial Truck of America, told FleetOwner that GM currently produces medium-duty F-series vehicles at the facility, which are then “sold back” to Isuzu when completed.
Bloom noted that negotiations for any such acquisition would be handled by Isuzu headquarters in Japan and he had no knowledge of any discussions. He added that Isuzu received a commitment today from the plant that it will continue production through 2009, but there is no definitive decision on what will occur after that point.
General Motors announced last February it would sell its medium-duty business to Navistar, but the deal eventually fell through. In April, the company removed shifts at the Flint facility, as it begun to focus more on producing fuel-efficient cars.
