TOWN OF TONAWANDA: 67 million motors later

By Ed Adamczyk

On September 16, 1908, a Michigan entrepreneur named Billy Durant set up a holding company to manage the Buick Motor Company, purchased the Oldsmobile works, later acquired Cadillac, Elmore and Oakland (eventually renamed Pontiac), and thus was the General Motors Corporation started.

Now, 100 years later, the company’s “Celebration of the Century” festivities will coincide with the 70th anniversary of the creation of the Powertrain engine plant on River Road in the Town of Tonawanda, which opened in September 1938. In a period of economic downturn and more uncertainty than usual in a notoriously uncertain industry, Western New York’s GM community of autoworkers, dealers, retirees and other stakeholders have something to commemorate.

Historically, the sturdy manufacturing behemoth on River Road has been a source and symbol of local prosperity. But GM’s market share in America is currently down to about 24 percent, the 1,860-employee Tonawanda workforce is half of what it was 10 years ago, vehicle sales are rocky in an arena of intense competition, and the value of GM’s common stock has dropped 80 percent in the past five years.

Into this uncertain business environment comes a celebration. A reception that will include a display of 100 GM vehicles, the oldest from 1915 (and including one of the first production models of the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro), will take place on Friday, a $100 per ticket party to benefit the American Cancer Society which last year was the recipient of $55,000 in donations from GM Tonawanda employees. Troy Clarke, group vice-president and President of GM North America, will offer remarks, and artwork by the late local artist Thomas Sgovio, retired autoworker and veteran of Siberian labor camps, will be auctioned.

The public part of the festivities comes Saturday, beginning with a motorcycle tour at 9:30 a.m. from the Tonawanda facility’s Plant 5 on Vulcan Street, through Riverside Park and onto the front lawn of the main building, where a large, free and all-day car show will be in progress.

To Steve Finch, who grew up in Buffalo and wound his way through GM before returning home as Tonawanda’s plant manager, the future here is very promising.

“The economy has shifted, and people are getting out of trucks and other large vehicles,” Finch said. “We make a number of products that are reaping the benefits of the transition.”

He cites the “high-value V6” 3.5 and 3.9-liter engines that are installed in vehicles that include the Pontiac G6 and the Buick Lucerne, and the 2.2-liter “Ecotec” 4-cylinder motors of the fast-selling Chevrolet Cobalt and the Chevrolet HHR. There is also a 4-cylinder engine for small Chevy pickup trucks, and a turbocharged diesel motor.

“We’ve had increased volume levels because of the shift,” he said, also noting that the Tonawanda plant was the second in the GM system to be certified “landfill-free”, with all disposable detritus from the manufacturing process recyclable or otherwise removable without involving a landfill.

GM invested $100 million in the Tonawanda plant in the past year, and $1.6 billion in the past 10 years.

“Those figures are higher than typical,” Finch said. “It’s an indicator that the corporation has a level of confidence in us, placing investment like that in our current products.”

Since opening in 1938, the plant has built 67 million motors, as well as aircraft engines for World War II and assorted other GM projects. And of the future?

“Every facility has risk, but we’ve got some solid products, a great workforce, and a great working relationship between the union (United Auto Workers Local 774) and management,” said Finch.

While he demurred from suggesting Tonawanda would soon have an immediate part in the corporation’s more exotic ventures, including electric- and hydrogen-powered cars, he added that “our employees have expressed an interest in future technology. We’ll do the right things to prepare.”

The Gala is an appropriate time “to recognize a milestone, 100 years of operation.” According to communications manager Nina Price, the celebration was organized “with great support from Paddock Chevrolet (of Kenmore) and the West-Herr Group” of local automobile dealerships.

Ed Adamczyk is a free lance writer who lives in Kenmore.