Thread: GM adding two vehicles, 1,800 jobs at Spring Hill, TN

GM adding two vehicles, 1,800 jobs at Spring Hill

Total investment in auto assembly line would be $350 million, automaker says




GM jobs announcement gets a positive reaction in Spring Hill and Columbia: 'A shot in the arm for our community', says one Spring Hill resident

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• Behind the Headline: GM expands production in Spri...
  
  Written by
  G. Chambers Williams III
  The Tennessean
  
  
  GM Spring Hill expansion
  
  New jobs expected: Up to 1,800
  Types of jobs: Auto assembly
  Hiring timetable: Over the next three years
  Starting wages: $15.68 an hour, plus full benefits, topping out at $19.23 (UAW contract)
  How, when to apply: No details released yet; check with Tennessee Career Center at Columbia for advice on applying.
  
  Related Links
• Booming Spring Hill says it's equipped to meet needs of more GM workers
• Timeline: History of Spring Hill manufacturing
• GM expected to announce Spring Hill expansion on Tuesday
• The GM plants over the years
• GM over the years

Making good on a promise made to the United Auto Workers union two years ago, General Motors announced Tuesday that it will add two more vehicles to the Spring Hill plant.

In all, General Motors will spend $350 million and create or retain at least 1,800 jobs at the Spring Hill plant to support the reopening of the once-shuttered vehicle assembly line. The plant already has one vehicle in production, the Chevrolet Equinox, which started production a year ago.

“This is a continuation of the relationship General Motors and the UAW have had, being creative in solving business challenges together,” Jim Glynn, GM’s vice president for labor, said in a phone interview. “It’s a great day for the members of UAW Local 1853, as well as the management team at Spring Hill and the Spring Hill community.”

Glynn would not say when hiring for the new jobs might begin, but said they would come over the next three years as the two new vehicles are put into production.
“This is great news for Spring Hill,” UAW President Bob King said in a phone interview. “We’re pleased that General Motors is making this announcement, and our members are really committed to the success” of GM.

The Spring Hill plant, which formerly was the headquarters and main assembly facility for GM’s now-defunct Saturn brand, ended vehicle production in November 2009 when manufacture of the Chevrolet Traverse large crossover was moved to Michigan in the wake of the GM bankruptcy reorganization.

In the Tuesday announcement, GM said it would add “$167 million to a previously announced $183 million pledge” to expand the plant. That includes “an additional $40 million” that would “support a future midsize vehicle program,” which would “create or retain approximately 1,000 jobs.”

The new investment also will add “a second midsize vehicle program” that will “create or retain approximately 800 jobs.”

While GM did not say what new vehicles the plant will be getting, analysts have suggested that they would be two midsize crossover vehicles based on the same architecture as the Equinox — the Cadillac SRX, which is now being made in Mexico, and perhaps the Buick Anthem, a vehicle GM has in development that would be positioned between the compact Buick Encore and full-size Buick Enclave crossovers. GM has not yet announced whether it will produce the Anthem, although spy photos of the vehicle have been posted on websites not associated with the automaker.

The UAW is “excited” about getting the additional expansion at the plant and welcomes the challenge of “producing more top-quality vehicles” for GM in Spring Hill, said Michael Herron, shop chairman for UAW Local 1853, which represents the 1,693 hourly workers at the plant.

Besides four-cylinder models of the Equinox, the plant also makes fuel-efficient four-cyliner Ecotec engines and body parts for other GM vehicles.
Local hires

In a break from the past, some of the hiring for the new positions is expected to be done locally, rather than transferring displaced UAW workers from other areas, although those workers will have priority under the UAW’s agreement with GM.

That had already begun with hiring for the Equinox production startup, and there are about 300 permanent workers now at the plant who were recruited locally over the past year or so, the union said.

“These will be permanent, full-time jobs, not hires through a temporary agency,” Herron said. New hires would be paid the present union starting rate of $15.68 an hour, which can top out at $19.23 an hour, plus the same benefits that longtime GM workers receive, he added.

Details on how to apply for jobs will not be available until the company gets ready to begin hiring, GM said.
Nissan, VW have expansions in works

The expansion at the GM plant follows an announcement in June that Nissan Motor Co. is adding 900 jobs to start making the Rogue crossover at its plant in Smyrna, about 30 miles northeast of the GM plant.

The new jobs are in addition to 800 positions added at the Smyrna plant last year, and will bring total employment at the suburban Nashville facility to more than 7,000.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen AG is expected to decide before the end of the year whether it will produce a new crossover vehicle at either its U.S. plant in Chattanooga or in Mexico.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact G. Chambers Williams III at 615-259-8076 or cwilliams1@tennessean.com.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130806/BUSINESS/308060063

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