Although most foreign automakers are not saddled with the responsibility of a unionized workforce, Mitsubishi is now experiencing some of the headaches the Big Three are all too familiar with. UAW Local 2488 – which staffs Mitsubishi’s Normal, Illinois plant – has voted whether to strike but is not revealing the result of the vote until August 28th.
Due to slumping U.S. sales, Mitsubishi has extended the UAW’s contract twice in the last three years, but it looks as though the situation is finally coming to a head. The August 28th announcement coincides with the UAW’s contract deadline.
Despite the three year extension, Mitsubishi and its Normal plant are still struggling in a tough U.S. market. The plant was originally intended to produce 240,000 vehicles per year, but will likely only produce 68,000 units this year. The Normal plant produces the Eclipse sports car, Galant sedan and Endeavor SUV. A strike would involve 1,300 hourly workers.
According to Automotive News, Mitsubishi’s Normal plant is one of only four North American auto manufacturing plants that is both unionized and owned or partly owned by a foreign automaker.
08/05, 4:38 PM
posted by:
jayjc08
Sad. It’s sad that all the news you hear of anymore is of the union striking. I’m honestly getting pretty sick of it, they weren’t willing to reduce some of their HUGE benefits and hourly pay, and now their even having more difficulty trying to accept that they need to “adjust”, because of both the economy and the current condition of the Big Three.
08/05, 4:46 PM
posted by:
jayjc08
It’s unfortunate though. The Endeavor wasn’t a bad vehicle at all, while the Endeavor could claim an average of about 21 miles per gallon, most others were struggling to average 16. If there was any sort of advertising campaign for it though, I was unaware of it. I think it mostly struggled because of it’s looks. The interior never seemed to be very high quality either, but is pretty dynamic and imo is good design material. Great platform, robust but not very dynamic engine and transmission, great ride and feel, but weird looks and a few other smaller things…
Does anybody know what happened to the Eclipse? You used to see them around all the time, but from the sounds of things they haven’t been selling well, at all. I heard something about reliability quite a whiles back, but haven’t heard any details since…
And the Galant… Just an extremely bland, boring sedan with some minor quality issues. No sense of design, no sense of excitement, although the Raliart looks good.
08/05, 11:06 PM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
And just what is the significance of August 28th? Is that the date they’re scheduled to start production on the ‘09 models that no one will buy either?
08/06, 1:49 AM
posted by:
elviososa
it’s a good time to get the UAW…Mitsu Should have fired them all!!!
08/06, 4:19 AM
posted by:
sprockkets
Looks like in the picture they finally gave it a decent looking pair of headlamps.
If you want an oversized chic car, get an Eclipse. If you want a Mitsu you are proud to own, get the Evolution.
Shame though that and the eclipse share the weird Nissan GT-R look.
08/06, 8:52 AM
posted by:
Fletch
Move Lancer production to Normal!
08/06, 11:46 AM
posted by:
krautninja
UAW is always on strike, really if they dont like what they get, get a new Fu(king job and stop bitchin. as far as mitsu goes…i used to like them. in the mid 90’s they had a decent thing goin for them, the 2nd gen eclipse was awesome. the 3000gt was the sh!t. the galant has always been kinda bland but the diamante was a really nice car. then mitsu took a dive once the millennium came about and they went to that boring bland eclipse with the v6 instead of the 4cyl turbo that was a proven to be quite viable. the galant got even more bland and the 3000gt died off. since then the only worth while product in their lineup is the line of Lancers. my advice to them, go back to using 4cyl turbos in the eclipse, bring back the 3000gt and , i know the current galant isnt very popular but personally i dont think its too bad looking, but it still has some work todo before its on anyones to buy list when compared to the other mid size ” me too” sedans
08/06, 12:39 PM
posted by:
JetmanOTC
What this means is the union workers voted not to strike but the UAW (the mob) wants to anyways.