Janesville School Board member Tim Cullen is helping coordinate a community response to General Motors intention to close the Janesville Assembly Plant. He says the GM policy makers are all in Detroit so the sooner they can make the case there the better.
Cullen and UAW Local 95 President Brad Dutcher are heading up the effort to keep the Assembly Plant open. He hopes the flexibility of the UAW workers will serve as incentive to keep it going.
"General Motors is running off to all parts of the world and down south trying to find a workforce. And we have a workforce they can easily work with in Janesville."
Cullen says it's not a slam dunk but it's also not absolutely impossible so they're going to try everything they can. Governor Jim Doyle announced Monday the two would organize federal, state and local resources for the project.
Also on Monday, Janesville GM workers were hit with another dose of bad news. Already facing a complete factory shutdown by 2010, employees were told they would be off the job for 14 weeks this year, or half the remaining six months of 2008. A company spokesman says production will be halted but it's not clear in which sequence it will occur.
(Contributed by Beth Wheelock – WCLO)