Gm Plants Resume Operations As Talks Continue

General Motors Corp. this week begins the long effort to make up light-truck production lost in last week’s strike-related plant shutdowns, which crippled U.S. assembly of its most profitable vehicles.

All four truck plants idled because of a United Auto Workers strike at GM’s Indianapolis metal-stamping plant will be back to normal operation by Thursday, the automaker said.

By Monday, nearly all of GM’s plants slowed or idled by last month’s Canadian Auto Workers strike were back at full operation.

“It looks like everything’s going to be back to normal in the next couple of days,” GM spokesman Tom Klipstine said.

Analysts have said it could be late winter or early spring before GM recoups most of the lost production.

But some significant production losses may never be made up. The Janesville, Wis., plant had been operating at capacity before the strike to keep up with a backlog of orders for its hot-selling sport utility vehicles: the Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon and Chevrolet-GMC Suburban.

Janesville was still idle Monday as negotiators continued trying to settle a strike by its UAW local. The walkout that began Oct. 29 has affected 4,809 workers.

GM spokesman Tom Beaman said the two sides met through the weekend, but he declined to say if progress was made.

The Indianapolis strike, also over local plant issues, was settled Saturday, hours after GM and the UAW reached tentative agreement in Detroit on a national contract covering GM’s 215,000 UAW workers.