"NOYB" wrote in message news:qQBbb.58380
No kidding. Management should have shut it down years ago in favor of
opening a more profitable non-union plant. I guess it took 68 years of
"negotiations" with UAW to finally win concessions for closing the
place.

Please provide...

No. *You* prove I'm wrong.

Okay:
From the Washington Post:

The 68-year-old plant produces the Chevrolet Astro and GMC Safari
full-sized vans. Sales of both vehicles have declined so sharply in
recent years that the plant had cut back from two shifts to one, the
official said.

Separately, Ford Motor Co. agreed in its tentative contract to keep
open a St. Louis assembly plant that it had proposed closing and to
shut down a plant in Loraine, Ohio, and move those workers to a
factory nearby. The news about the GM and Ford plants was reported by
Reuters.

The GM shutdown will further erode a key source of jobs for the
Baltimore area, economists said. "It's an awful blow to Maryland's
industrial base," said Richard Clinch, director of economic research
at the University of Baltimore. "For places like Baltimore, with a
large base of middle- to low-skilled workers, this is a huge blow."

The big, boxy Astro and Safari, the same basic vehicle built for
separate GM brands, lost their competitiveness as the market swung
heavily to minivans. The GM models ran up against popular foreign
rivals such as the Toyota Sienna, Nissan Qwest and Honda Odyssey.

The article further states:

In recent years, GM has been shifting toward flexible production at
newer plants instead of manufacturing one type of vehicle at its aging
factories. The strategy, aimed at boosting productivity, allows the
company to adjust swiftly to changing demand and make smaller numbers
of different types of vehicles.

"When they come up with a new vehicle, they don't make an investment
in a used factory, because of the embedded work practices, the
environment. It's very difficult bringing an old factory up to speed,"
said Rob Lachenauer, a vice president at the Boston Consulting Group