General Motors Co (GM) will add a shift and more than 650 jobs at its assembly plant in Flint, Michigan, where it makes the hot--selling GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado pickup trucks, a person familiar with the plan said on Saturday. The move is yet another sign that truck sales are on the rise for the recovering automaker.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been publicly made.
An announcement was scheduled for today and comes as Chevy sales to small businesses have increased for three straight months, which GM says is an indication that small businesses across the country are beginning to reinvest.
The Detroit News reported earlier on Saturday about the additional jobs at the factory.
The plant, which employs more than 2,000 hourly and salaried workers, builds the heavy-duty Chevrolet and GMC Sierra crew and regular cab trucks and the light-duty Chevrolet Silverado crew and regular cab trucks.
The additional workers will come from GM’s pool of laid-off workers, so no new employees will be hired, the person briefed on the announcement said. In the fourth quarter of last year, GM had about 3,500 laid-off workers in the pool nationwide.
There will be no added investment at the plant because GM is adding a third shift that will use the same equipment as the first two shifts.
A message seeking comment was left on Saturday with Ben Mata, president of United Auto Workers Local 598, which represents the plant.
The birthplace of GM, which sits 80km northwest of the company’s headquarters in Detroit, Flint was once was a powerful auto manufacturing town, but its economy and population have steadily declined over the past few decades.
Flint Assembly opened in 1947 when the city was in a much different situation.
However, like other factories in the state and elsewhere in the US, it is about to reap the benefits of the changing good fortunes of the domestic car industry.
Two months ago, GM announced a US$163 million investment in a separate Flint plant as well as facilities in Bay City, Michigan, and an Ohio foundry to make small-car engines, and Chrysler said it was going to pump US$843 million into three Indiana factories to build a new front-wheel-drive transmission.
Both companies are recovering from the 2009 auto industry meltdown when they were forced to take government bailouts in order to make it through bankruptcy protection.
And just a few days ago, Ford Motor Co said it would be retaining nearly 3,750 jobs and spending about US$400 million to upgrade a Missouri plant that had been in danger of closing.
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