Governor Jindal, his Secretary of Louisiana Economic Development, Stephen Moret and others are traveling to Detroit on Friday to persuade the automaker that Louisiana is a good place to maintain operations and employees.  This trip is in response to an announcement that the General Motors plant in Shreveport would be laying off nearly 800 employees in late September.

On Thursday, Bayoubuzz emailed Stephen Moret asking him about the purpose of the mission.

The Secretary of Economic Development, Moret responded via email and said, “The GM Shreveport facility is one of the most important employers in the State of Louisiana.  Governor Jindal, Caddo Parish Administrator Woody Wilson, Shreveport Mayor Cedric Glover and I are visiting with several top GM-North America executives on Friday to convey strong, unequivocal state and local support for the GM Shreveport facility, as well as to offer a variety of potential options for retaining and expanding the workforce there.  As Governor Jindal has shared, we are prepared to offer the full capabilities of the State of Louisiana to support this effort, including but not limited to the Mega Projects Development Fund, the Rapid Response Fund, specialized workforce training dollars, tax and/or regulatory changes (enacted via special session, if necessary), customized incentives, etc.

We believe in the future of U.S. auto manufacturing, and we fully expect that GM will make the product-line changes necessary to eventually emerge from the current challenging environment as a stronger company than it is today.  We aspire for Shreveport/Caddo to become a major part of the “New GM”, and we are going to offer several creative solutions for accomplishing just that.”

The automobile industry has taken a major hit with the high price of fuel causing industry leaders to rethink and retool their product and strategies which has precipitated the announced layoffs.