DETROIT — General Motors is expected to announce as soon as Friday that it will reverse plans to close two plants near Detroit after Michigan won a three-state battle to be the site where G.M. will build a new small car.þþG.M. chose to make the car at its Orion Township assembly plant, which was scheduled to close in September, over plants in Janesville, Wis., and Spring Hill, Tenn., a person with knowledge with the decision said Thursday. þþA metal-stamping plant about five miles away from Orion in the city of Pontiac will stay open to supply the Orion plant. The two plants employ about 5,000 people.þþThe Orion and Pontiac plants were among 14 doomed factories identified by G.M. on June 1, when it filed for bankruptcy protection. The decision means that the Spring Hill plant will close in November, though G.M. has said it could reopen later if additional production capacity is needed. The Janesville plant closed in December.þþ“It would be extremely important for the entire state of Michigan, which has disproportionately been affected by the downturn and plant closures,” said Gary Peters, a Democratic representative whose district includes both plants that will reopen, along with another assembly plant that will close in October. þþ“General Motors was born here in Michigan 100 years ago and it would be fitting that in their rebirth they build their next generation of cars here in Michigan,” Mr. Peters said.þþMr. Peters said he had received no official word from G.M. as of Thursday. A G.M. spokesman, Tom Pyden, said an announcement would be made “soon, perhaps as early as tomorrow,” but he would not confirm that G.M. had settled on the Michigan plants.þþ“We are nearing a decision, but we have yet to inform the three states that are in the running for the facility,” Mr. Pyden said.þþG.M. originally planned to import its new small car from China, where it could pay lower wages, but it agreed as part of a deal it reached with the United Automobile Workers union in May to build the car in the United States instead.þþFor the last month, officials from Michigan, Wisconsin and Tennessee have been lobbying heavily to persuade G.M. to choose their home state. Several weeks ago, Tennessee’s governor, Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, said G.M. wanted at least $200 million in incentives to choose his state and that Tennessee probably could not afford the company’s request.þþIt was unclear Thursday what incentives Michigan had agreed to give G.M. þþNearly 30,000 people signed a petition started by a group called Make It in Michigan, which ran radio advertisements in Detroit and created a Web site asking G.M. to choose the Orion plant.þþ
Source: NY Times
