Moraine Assembly was a

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

factory in

Moraine, Ohio Moraine is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States. Situated on the banks of the Great Miami River, Moraine is an inner suburb of Dayton, Ohio and a part of the Dayton metropolitan area. The population was 6,307 at the 2010 census. ...

, United States, a suburb of

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

. A

Frigidaire Frigidaire Appliance Company is the American consumer and commercial home appliances brand subsidiary of multinational company Electrolux. Frigidaire was founded as the Guardian Frigerator Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and developed the first s ...

appliance plant had originally operated on the site from 1951 to 1979. Starting in 1981, the

Chevrolet S-10 The Chevrolet S-10 is a compact pickup truck that was produced by Chevrolet. It was the first domestically built compact pickup of the big three American automakers. When it was first introduced as a "quarter-ton pickup" in 1981 for the 1982 m ...

small pickup was produced. This same model was produced by Shreveport Assembly. In 1987 through 1994 the plant produced the rolling chassis for the

Grumman LLV The Grumman Long Life Vehicle (LLV) is an American light transport truck model, designed as a mail truck for the United States Postal Service, which is its primary user. It is also used by Canada Post. History The Grumman LLV was specifically ...

Postal Vehicle. From 2001 through 2008, the plant produced the

GMT360 GMT 360 is a vehicle platform that was manufactured by General Motors from the 2002 and 2009 model years. Designed primarily for SUVs, the GMT360 architecture served as the third generation of mid-size SUVs produced by GM. Directly succeeding i ...

SUVs A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definitio ...

. The plant was closed in December 2008. In 2014, the facilities were acquired by Fuyao Glass to produce glass for vehicles.

Plant closure

On June 3, 2008, GM Chairman

Rick Wagoner George Richard "Rick" Wagoner Jr. (born February 9, 1953) is an American businessman and former chair and chief executive officer of General Motors. Wagoner resigned as chairman and CEO at General Motors on March 29, 2009, at the request of the ...

announced that the Moraine plant would close in December, citing high fuel prices and decreased demand for the SUV and trucks produced by the plant. There were no plans to reconfigure the plant to produce other products. The last vehicle that rolled off the line was a white

GMC Envoy The GMC Envoy is a mid-size SUV, manufactured and marketed by General Motors for model years 1998-2009 over two generations. Adopting a nameplate used by GM Canada, the Envoy was a rebadged variant of the Chevrolet TrailBlazer, Oldsmobile Brava ...

. Workers at the plant in Moraine were given a letter on October 3, 2008, informing them that the plant would close in December. It stated that the final day of production would be December 23. At that time, the plant employed 2,400 people. Originally, General Motors had planned several shutdown weeks in December. However, Lee said there would be no temporary shutdowns and the plant would operate until December 23. IUE-CWA President Jim Clark said, "IUE-CWA is deeply disappointed in General Motors’ 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." File:General Motors Moraine Assembly (3178068609).jpg File:The End (3132330242).jpg File:At least we got a cake (3130155248).jpg File:Moraine assembly 074 (8152277294).jpg

Past products

:1983–2004

Chevrolet S-10 Blazer The Chevrolet (S-10) Blazer and its badge engineered GMC (S-15) Jimmy counterpart are compact/mid-size SUVs manufactured and marketed by Chevrolet and GMC from the 1983 through 2005 model years, over two generations – until the early 1990s a ...

:1983–2004

GMC S-15 Jimmy GMC may refer to: Government India * Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation, in Gujarat * Gobichettipalayam Municipal Corporation, in Tamil Nadu * Guntur Municipal Corporation, in Andhra Pradesh * Guwahati Municipal Corporation, in Assam * Gwalior ...

:1987-1994

Chassis :1991–2004

Oldsmobile Bravada The Oldsmobile Bravada is a four-door mid-size SUV manufactured and marketed by the Oldsmobile division of General Motors. The Bravada was built across three generations as a rebadged variant of the Chevrolet Blazer and GMC Jimmy. It was the on ...

:1998–2009

:2002–2009

Chevrolet TrailBlazer The Chevrolet Trailblazer is an automobile nameplate used by General Motors for its Chevrolet brand since 1999 for several SUV models: * TrailBlazer, a name of appearance package for the Chevrolet S-10 Blazer used between 1999 and 2002 * Chevro ...

:2004–2007

Buick Rainier The Buick Rainier is a mid-size luxury SUV that was manufactured by General Motors and marketed by Buick for model years 2004–2007. It was named after Mount Rainier, and — along with the Saab 9-7X — was the replacement for the Oldsmobile ...

:2003–2008

Isuzu Ascender The Isuzu Ascender is a mid-size SUV built by General Motors for Isuzu. The 7-passenger Ascender was introduced for the 2003 model year as a replacement for the Isuzu Trooper. The 5-passenger Ascender was introduced for the 2004 model year as a ...

:2005–2009

Saab 9-7X The Saab 9-7X is a mid-size luxury SUV that was built by General Motors for the American market and sold under the Saab marque. The 9-7X was first revealed at the 2004 New York International Auto Show, and was available starting in the model y ...

Fuyao Glass

In 2014, GM Moraine Assembly was purchased from IRG by China-based Fuyao Glass Industry Group Co. Ltd. Fuyao manufactures automotive glass for GM and other automakers. Operations at the Fuyao plant began in late 2015. Fuyao Glass America's first customer was Hyundai Motor Company; additional clients added since startup include GM,

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...

, Fiat Chrysler, BMW,

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

, and US replacement-glass chain

Safelite Safelite Group, Inc. is an American provider of vehicle glass repair, replacement, and calibration services and insurance claims management company, based in Columbus, Ohio. History Bud Glassman and Art Lankin started Safelite in a junkyard ...

. The Fuyao plant employs over 2,000 workers.

Carillon Historical Park Carillon Historical Park is a 65-acre (26.3 ha) park and museum in Dayton, Ohio, which contains historic buildings and exhibits concerning the history of technology and the history of Dayton and its residents from 1796 to the present. As a part of ...

in Dayton displays the final SUV made at Moraine Assembly next to the first

windshield The windshield (North American English) or windscreen (Commonwealth English) of an aircraft, car, bus, motorbike, truck, train, boat or streetcar is the front window, which provides visibility while protecting occupants from the elements. Mo ...

made by Fuyao Glass America. By the end of 2016 the plant brought an estimated $280 million to the Ohio economy. Fuyao has invested $1 billion in its U.S. subsidiary, with long-term plans to grow to 5,000 employees in the United States.

In popular culture

*Moraine Assembly's closing is the subject of the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

short documentary, '' The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant''. It was filmed by local directors

Julia Reichert Julia Bell Reichert (June 16, 1946 – December 1, 2022) was an American Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, activist, and feminist. She was a co-founder of New Day Films. Reichert's filmmaking career spanned over 50 years as a direct ...

and Steve Bognar with the help of several Moraine Assembly workers. The film was nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) This is a list of films by year that have received an Academy Award together with the other nominations for best documentary short film. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are annou ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

. *The Fuyao Glass plant is the focus of

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

's ''

American Factory ''American Factory'' () is a 2019 American documentary film directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, about Chinese company Fuyao's factory in Moraine, a city near Dayton, Ohio, that occupies Moraine Assembly, a shuttered General Motors pl ...

'', also made by Reichert and Bognar. It is the first film distributed by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

and First Lady

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married t ...

's production company,

Higher Ground Productions Higher Ground Productions, also known simply as Higher Ground, is an American production company founded in 2018 by former United States President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama. History In May 2018, the Obamas launched Higher ...

References

{{coord, 39, 42, 5.37, N, 84, 12, 52.42, W, region:US_type:landmark, display=title General Motors factories Former motor vehicle assembly plants Motor vehicle assembly plants in Ohio Buildings and structures in Montgomery County, Ohio 1951 establishments in Ohio