June 1983: GM and Fort Wayne representatives meet
secretly to spend a day touring neighborhoods and gathering information
on the area's schools and quality of life. GM was looking for a site to
build a robotics plant for a joint venture with a Japanese company. It
didn't seriously consider Fort Wayne for the project but was impressed
with the city.
February 1984: Norfolk Southern Corp. representatives begin
shopping for 1,000 acres of industrial property in Allen County. They
found it in a stretch of farmland along Interstate 69. But it needed to
be rezoned, highways had to be improved, and city water and sewer lines
had to be extended from seven miles away.
July 1984: Local and state government representatives learn
officially that Norfolk Southern represents GM. The automaker announces
it will build a $500 million pickup plant if its list of incentives can
be met.
August 1984: On Aug. 30, GM officially says it will build a
pickup plant in Fort Wayne. GM begins buying land for a 937-acre plant
site at Lafayette Center Road and I-69. Fort Wayne agrees not to annex
the site for 25 years.
November 1984: Indiana grants an air-pollution construction
permit allowing GM to build the local pickup plant.
January 1985: Ryder Systems announces plans to spend $4 million
developing a 58-acre truck transportation facility near the pickup
plant.
Nov. 23, 1986: GM begins producing pickups with 1,900 workers in
Fort Wayne.
September 1987: United Auto Workers Local 2209 in Fort Wayne
rejects two plant contract proposals recommended by union leadership,
then ratifies a third by 61 percent.
July 1987: Second shift added at the local plant, increasing
payroll by about 1,000.
1988-89: Indiana widens Lower Huntington Road and builds an
interchange at I-69 to provide a second entrance to the plant.
May 1989: UAW Local 2209 opens newly built union hall.
1990-91: Local GM plant experiences periodic two-week shutdowns
to reduce pickup inventories as national recession slows sales.
October 1990: UAW Local 2209 ratifies three-year plant contract
with support from two-thirds of membership.
December 1991: The millionth pickup rolls off the line at GM's
Fort Wayne plant.
May 1992: GM holds its annual meeting in Fort Wayne, attracting
more than 1,500 shareholders and company officials to the city.
October 1992: A national ranking of vehicle assembly plants
reports GM's local facility is its most efficient factory.
August 1993: The Fort Wayne plant is No.1 among all U.S. truck
plants in ranking
by J.D. Power and Associates.
February 1994: UAW Local 2209 ratifies three-year plant contract
with support from two-thirds of membership. The contract allows the
local to call for a study on labor requirements for jobs it considers
understaffed. GM announces plans to spend $57 million to expand its
paint shop by 30,000 square feet.
December 1994: UAW Local 2209 votes to strike unless negotiators
can resolve differences over the size of the plant's work force.
January 1995: A strike is averted when the local GM plant agrees
to hire about 400 area production workers and add 1-ton pickups to its
Chevrolet C/K and GMC Sierra production schedules.
October 1995: GM announces $300 million renovation and expansion
of Fort Wayne plant to prepare for production of redesigned 1999
pickups.
March 1996: Local GM plant shut down for two weeks by strikes at
two GM brake parts factories in Dayton, Ohio.
June 1996: Local GM plant makes its 2 millionth pickup.
October-November 1996: Local GM plant shut down for four days by
a strike at a GM stamping plant in Indianapolis.
November 1996: UAW Local 2209 reports plant contract talks are
deadlocked over health and safety issues, including repetitive-motion
injury problems, and the union could strike unless it sees progress with
negotiations. It would be the local's first strike.
Late 2002: An Aerial View of the Plant |
