Fiat Chrysler on Sunday announced it was creating 2,000 jobs in the US, coming as US president-elect Donald Trump has been publicly scolding automakers for investing in Mexico.
The American-Italian firm will invest US$1 billion by 2020 in two of its factories in Michigan and Ohio states, where the new jobs will be based, the company said in a statement coming on the eve of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
The Warren Truck Assembly Plant in Michigan will produce the Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, as well as the Ram heavy duty truck which is currently produced in Mexico, the company said.
The Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio will build a new Jeep pickup truck.
“FCA US [Fiat Chrysler] is further demonstrating its commitment to strengthening its US manufacturing base,” it said, adding that it has created 25,000 jobs in the country since 2009.
Trump, who campaigned on promises of creating industrial jobs in the US heartland, took to Twitter last week to blast automakers with operations or plans to build plants in Mexico.
He slammed General Motors for making some of its Chevy Cruze models in Mexico, and Toyota, which is building a new plant there.
NEW ECONOMIC ERA
On Tuesday last week, US automaker Ford announced it was scrapping construction of a US$1.6 billion plant in Mexico to instead invest in the US and create 700 jobs, citing a “vote of confidence” in the economic agenda of the incoming president.
Fiat Chrysler so far has escaped Trump’s Twitter wrath, but it is due to start importing Jeep Compass models from Mexico this month.
The company was rebuilt in 2009 after its predecessor the Chrysler Group went bankrupt and required a federal bailout to stay in business. It has three manufacturing sites in Mexico — in Toluca, Ramos Arizpe and Saltillo — where it produces pickups, as well as the Fiat Fremont and the Fiat 500.
Other auto groups have preemptively said they will be flexible in the new era of US politics.
“We are pragmatic, we will adapt to any situation,” Renault-Nissan alliance chief Carlos Ghosn said at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Last month, US air conditioner manufacturer Carrier backed off a planned transfer of 1,000 jobs to Mexico after a deal with Trump — and for US$7 million in tax cuts.
Mexico’s relatively low wages, its proximity to the US market and the free-trade deals the country has with 46 countries make it attractive to foreign investors.
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Greek tourism student Katerina quit within a month of starting work at a five-star hotel in Halkidiki, one of the country’s top destinations, because she said conditions were so dire. Beyond the bad pay, the 22-year-old said that her working and living conditions were “miserable and unacceptable.” Millions holiday in Greece every year, but its vital tourism industry is finding it harder and harder to recruit Greeks to look after them. “I was asked to work in any department of the hotel where there was a need, from service to cleaning,” said Katerina, a tourism and marketing student, who would
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