General Motors To Close Oklahoma City Plant

[mcheiss]

I heard that GM has now decided to close it's Oklahoma City Plant.

The Oklahoma City plant will be shut down in early 2006. There are about 24-hundred employees in Oklahoma City who assemble the seven-passenger Chevrolet Trail Blazer and GMC Envoy sport utility vehicles.

The plant is one of five assembly plants and nine total facilities G-M will close as part of a plan to reduce its workforce by about 30-thosuand employees.

This really is sad for Oklahoma, I sure hope that it can recover from this. I guess Toyota seems to be taking over the #1 car manufacturer in America.

[jbrown84]

Yes this will hurt Oklahoma City, but our economy is stronger than Tulsa's right now and we will recover. If this had happened ten years ago it would have been much more devastating.

Still, I am sad for workers who heard they would lose their jobs just before Thanksgiving.

[mcheiss]

It is very sad.

Any news on any companies coming in to fill the void that GM is leaving?

[jbrown84]

Not really since it was only announced yesterday. The only rumors I have heard are that Tinker Air Force Base, which is just north of the plant site, has long wanted that land so they could extend their runway over I-240, allowing larger planes to land there. But I think a lot of people would rather some kind of manifacturing go in there. We'll see...

[Mith242]

I almost started this topic, but I didn't know a lot of details yet and figured someone else would eventually start it themselves. From what I've seen the general attitude is like jbrown84. It will hurt but it won't be devastating, the city didn't have all their 'eggs in just this one basket'. There a diverse enough economy to keep going without huge negative effects.