Moraine Assembly was a General Motors

General Motors

General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...

 automobile

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

 factory in Moraine, Ohio

Moraine, Ohio

Moraine is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States. The population was 6,307 at the 2010 census. The city is part of the The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Montgomery county. Moraine, as part of the Dayton area, is situated within the Miami Valley region of Ohio, just...

, United States, a suburb of Dayton, Ohio

Dayton, Ohio

Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...

. Opened in 1951, originally as a Frigidaire

Frigidaire

Frigidaire is a brand of consumer and commercial appliances. Frigidaire was founded as the Guardian Frigerator Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and developed the first self-contained refrigerator in 1916. In 1918, William C...

 appliance plant, the plant produces trucks for GM. From 2001-2008, it produced the GMT360 SUVs

Sport utility vehicle

A sport utility vehicle is a generic marketing term for a vehicle similar to a station wagon, but built on a light-truck chassis. It is usually equipped with four-wheel drive for on- or off-road ability, and with some pretension or ability to be used as an off-road vehicle. Not all four-wheel...

. The 3rd shift of production was eliminated from Moraine effective in July 2006 following an announcement in November 2005.

Past Products:

2002–2009 Chevrolet TrailBlazer

Chevrolet TrailBlazer

The Chevrolet TrailBlazer is a mid-size sport utility vehicle produced by the Chevrolet division of American automaker General Motors.On November 10th, 2011, General Motors officially revealed a second generation of the vehicle to be sold worldwide...

1998–2009 GMC Envoy

GMC Envoy

The GMC Envoy is an SUV from the GMC marque of General Motors. It was introduced as a high-end version of the Jimmy for the 1998 model year, the same year the Jimmy was restyled...

2005–2009 Saab 9-7X

Saab 9-7X

The Saab 9-7X was a Saab-branded mid-size sport utility vehicle based on General Motors' GMT360 platform, which also included the GMC Envoy, Buick Rainier, Oldsmobile Bravada, Isuzu Ascender, and Chevrolet TrailBlazer The Saab 9-7X was a Saab-branded mid-size sport utility vehicle (SUV) based on...

1983–2004 Chevrolet S-10 Blazer

Chevrolet S-10 Blazer

The Chevrolet Blazer and the similar GMC S-15 Jimmy are mid-size SUVs from General Motors. Production began alongside the larger K5 Blazer and Jimmy in 1983 and lasted through 2005. In the United States retail sales after 2004 were limited to two-door Blazer models, all other models being sold...

1983–2004 GMC S-15 Jimmy

2005–2008 Isuzu Ascender

Isuzu Ascender

The Isuzu Ascender was a mid-size/full-size SUV built by General Motors for Isuzu. Introduced for the 2003 model year, the 7-passenger Ascender was a re-badged GMC Envoy. It replaced the Japanese built mid-size Isuzu Trooper. A shorter 5-passenger model was made available for the 2005 model year...

2002–2004 Oldsmobile Bravada

Oldsmobile Bravada

The Oldsmobile Bravada is a mid-size luxury sport utility vehicle from the now retired Oldsmobile marque of General Motors. There have been two different vehicles to bear this model name, the first and second-generation GMT330, and the 2002 to 2004 GMT360....

2004–2007 Buick Rainier

Buick Rainier

The Buick Rainier was a mid-size SUV sold by the Buick division of General Motors. Introduced for 2004 to replace the Oldsmobile Bravada, the Rainier was the first truck sold under the Buick marque since the 1920s, and was the first body-on-frame...

Plant closure

On Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008, GM Chairman Rick Wagoner announced the Moraine plant would close in December, citing high fuel prices and decreased demand for the SUV and trucks produced by the plant. There are no plans to reconfigure the plant to produce other products.

Workers at the General Motors plant in Moraine were given a letter on Friday October 3rd, 2008 saying the plant would be closing in December. According to the letter, the last day of production would be Dec. 23, 2008. At the time, the plant employed 2400 workers.

GM spokesman Chris Lee said plant managers shut the line down at 2:30 p.m. on October 3rd to gather the workers together and give them the letter. The last vehicle that rolled off was a white GMC Envoy

GMC Envoy

The GMC Envoy is an SUV from the GMC marque of General Motors. It was introduced as a high-end version of the Jimmy for the 1998 model year, the same year the Jimmy was restyled...

.
Originally, General Motors had planned several shutdown weeks in December. However, Lee said there would be no temporary shutdowns and the plant will operate until December 23.
IUE-CWA President Jim Clark said, "IUE-CWA is deeply disappointed in General Motor's refusal to keep the Moraine Assembly plant open. The announcement that the plant will be closed much earlier than initially stated will further hurt our members, their families and a Dayton community already rocked by plant closings and layoffs."

The plant closing is also the subject of the HBO short documentary, The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant. Captured by local directors Steve Bognar and Julia Reichert with the help of several Moraine Assembly workers. In 2010 it was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Documentary (Short Subject) category but lost to Music by Prudence.