Factory General Motors de Janesville

The factory General Motors of Janesville is an important site of automotive engineering, located at Janesville, in the Wisconsin (ETAS-Plain). The factory of Janesville builds motor vehicles since 1923, which makes of it the oldest factory of the General Motors Corporation still in activity.

Chronology

1919 : General Motors builds a factory intended for the production of tractors with Janesville.
1920: Beginning of the construction of trucks.
1923 : Beginning of the production of Chevrolet cars.
1932 : Closing of the factory until 1934.
1937: Burden and recognition with trade union UAW.
1942 : Stop of the production of cars, manufacture of shell and spare parts for the Chevrolet in circulation.
1945 : Resumption of the production of Chevrolet cars.
1968 : Reorganization of the factory: Fisher Body and Chevrolet are joined together in the GM Assembly Division.
1984 : The factory of Janesville is attached to Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac (BOC) Group.
1987 : Beginning of the production of commercial vehicles of leisure (SUV) on one of the two assembly lines.
1990 : The factory of Janesville is attached to the GM Truck & Bus Group.
2005 : The factory of Janesville produces its 16 millionth vehicle.

Beginnings

General Motors, created in 1908, decided in 1918 to be interested in the farm equipment by repurchasing the Samson Tractor Company, of Janesville. A new factory was built on a ground of 22 hectares; the principal building measured 166 X 70 meters. The factory included/understood a foundry. First tractor GM left the chain on May 1st 1919 and at the end of one year the production reached nearly 150 tractors per day, but it was a commercial failure.

In 1920, were built trucks Samson M-15 at the rate of 15 per hour. In 1923, the factory, which employed 660 people, started to produce cars Chevrolet. The growth was constant in the Twenties: in 1925, left the hundred thousandths conveys and the factory employed 2.600 workers. In spite of prosperity, the wages paid by General Motors in Janesville were poor: the majority of the workmen received only 0,45 dollar of the hour. In 1929, the five hundred thousandths car left the chain of Janesville.

The crisis and the war

The factory of Janesville was divided into two units: Fisher Body for the manufacture of the body, and Chevrolet for the assembly of the cars. The production was seriously affected by the Grande Depression starting from 1932 and the factory closed completely until in 1934. In 1933, however, 200 workmen of Janesville worked with the World Fair of Chicago, where they assembled 3.200 Chevrolet cars.

In 1937, the workmen of GM with Janesville took part in the victorious strike for the recognition of the United Automobile Workers (UAW). The strike with occupation launched by the president of Room 121 of the UAW, Elmer Yenney, lasted little at Janesville, only 9 hours and 15 minutes, the January 2nd 1937. After negotiations between the plant manager and the UAW, the workmen of Fisher Body and Chevrolet voted the suspension of the occupation and the direction began to maintain the factory closed throughout nation-wide strike of the workers of General Motors and not to move neither the material nor stocks. The strike leads finally to the recognition of trade union UAW by General Motors: in Janesville, Room 95 represented the workmen of Fisher Body and the Room 121 those of Chevrolet.

In 1942, the production of the Chevrolet cars was stopped and the unit Fisher Body undertook a transformation, which lasted six months, in order to produce artillery shells of 105 Misters En mars 1942, Fisher Body was attached to the division Oldsmobile de General Motors, which joined the majority of the workmen of Chevrolet. Throughout war, they produced more than 16 million shell. The Chevrolet unit was devoted for its part to the manufacture of spare parts for cars, intended in priority for the vehicles of the Army and the Navy, the surplus going to the private individuals.

The apogee

In 1945, the factory General Motors de Janesville started again the production of cars Chevrolet and the workers of the factory then knew a certain golden age, which lasted until the Seventies. The production increased: in 1959, the four millionth vehicle left the factory. In 1966, began the production of the Chevrolet Caprice and Impala. The following year, the factory of Janesville had the honor to build the 100 millionth vehicle produced by General Motors.

In 1968, the units Fisher Body and Chevrolet de Janesville were joined together in only one entity “ Assembly ” attached to the news General Motors Assembly Division (GMAD). The UAW reorganized également : room 121 joined the Room 95, which represented from now on the whole of the syndicated workers of the factory. At the end of the Seventies, the manpower of the factory reached its historical records of 7.000 paid.

Reorganization

In the Eighties, various reorganizations of General Motors affected the factory of Janesville. In 1984, the factory was attached to Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac Group. The 4 days week (4 X 10 hours) was introduced. The factory began the manufacture of trucks of average power GMT530, assembled before with Flint. In 1990, the factory of Janesville was attached to the GM Truck & Bus Group and became one of the three factories of General Motors to build “SUV” (sport utility vehicles), or commercial vehicles sporting. The reorganization of the line productions, the installation of hundreds of robots, were completed in 1991, year when the factory produced 35.261 vehicles. But production capacities were carried to 1.200 vehicles per day, that is to say an annual capacity of 250.000 on the basis of four day per week. A fifth workday is possible - paid with the tariff of overtime - in the event of strong demand.

In 1994,237.925 SUV left the chains of Janesville, which employed nearly 5.000 paid. The following year, the strong sales of the Chevrolet models and GMC Suburban, Chevrolet Kodiak, Chevrolet Tahoe and Isuzu W-4 made it possible to engage 500 additional workmen. Important investments were carried out during the following years to improve the productivity of the factory of Janesville. Thus, by 2003,258.000 vehicles left the chains, from of which GMC Yukon and Yukon XL, with a manpower fallen with 3.900 workers

Since 2002, factory GM of Janesville assembles SUV “FlexFuel” been driven by V8 engines of 5,3 liters, rolling to the gasoline, the ethanol E85 or with a mixture of the two fuels. The E85 ethanol is composed of 85% of ethanol containing corn and gasoline 15%. In June 2006, more than one half-million of vehicles “FlexFuel” had already been assembled in Janesville.

Sources

Savage Mark, “GM seedling revs up to roll out new SUVs”, The Milwaukee Newspaper Sentinel , October 9th, 1999.
Ryan J. Foley, “Edge GM' S oldest seedling survives latest cutbacks? ”, The Strait News , June 14th, 2005.
Rick Rommel, “Janesville GM seedling is community bedrock; Factory' S importance”, The Milwaukee Newspaper Sentinel , December 11th, 2005.

External bonds

the factory General Motors de Janesville on Google Maps

History of Janesville

History of the strike of 1937

Wisconsin Labor History Society

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