On the heels of a government report showing the most jobs created in nearly three years, General Motors is also bringing more than 100 hourly employees back to work.
GM said Monday that the jobs were being added to the Warren Transmission plant, which employs about 780 people and makes transmissions for the Chevy Equinox, Chevy Traverse, Chevy Malibu, Buick LaCrosse and other vehicles.
Sales of the Equinox during the first three months of the year are up 130% compared with the same period last year. LaCrosse sales are up 197%.
“Increased market demand for our great vehicles is driving expansion of our production operations. Additional jobs will allow us to grow the business, while meeting increasing customer demand for our hot products,” Dave Tatman, Warren plant manager, said in a statement.
The new jobs at Warren will be filled with laid-off workers from other regional plants, said Kevin Nadrowski, a GM spokesman.
GM spent the first quarter of 2010 working on plans to increase production of its popular new vehicles, which dealers have said are scarce.
GM announced plans last month to increase production of the Equinox by doing final assembly at a second Canadian plant.
The Equinox and GMC Terrain are built at GM’s CAMI Automotive plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, where there isn’t room to paint or do final assembly of any more vehicles.
GM’s new plan to boost production is to expand the body shop and produce extra Equinox bodies at CAMI that will then be shipped about two hours to GM’s Oshawa plant for paint and final assembly.
Additional plans to increase production include:
• GM’s Lansing-Delta Township plant begins a third shift this week and dealers should see extra Traverse, Buick Enclave and GMC Acadia models this month, Susan Docherty, GM vice president of marketing, said last week.
• Dealers should see increased levels of the Equinox and GMC Terrain in the next 60 to 90 days, she added.
• Overtime is being added in May and June at the plant that makes the Camaro. That means dealers should see additional inventory in late June and July.
• Earlier this year, a third shift was added at GM’s assembly plant in Kansas City, Kan., to increase production of the LaCrosse and Chevy Malibu.
Source:freep.com/TIM HIGGINS
