General Motors Co. will continue to employ more Detroiters under a workforce development project run by Focus: HOPE and Android Industries LLC.
Auburn Hills-based auto parts supplier, Android, said it will create up to 150 manufacturing jobs for Focus: HOPE, a Detroit-based human rights group that screens and hires workers for the company. Founded in 1968, it also provides many types of services to Detroiters in need, from a food bank to job training.
Android currently leases 70,000 square feet of space at the Focus: HOPE campus on Oakman Boulevard, where more than a dozen workers assemble headliners and front-rear suspension modules for the extended-range Volt electric vehicle. Next year from 80 to 100 additional workers will be hired for the same type of work for the 2012 Malibu. More positions may follow in 2013.
The company said its current space usage at Focus: HOPE will grow many times over as it ramps up production.
Android moved the Volt work to Focus: HOPE from a plant in Warren because of the proximity of the Oakman Boulevard site to the General Motors’ Volt assembly plant in Hamtramck and because of the desire to help Detroit.
“Why is Android at Focus: HOPE? The answer is very simple: It is the right thing to do,” said Android CEO Jerry Elson.
“Ultimately, our goal is to bring jobs back into the city, and this partnership with Android does just that,” said Focus: HOPE CEO William F. Jones Jr.
Gov. Rick Snyder hailed the partnership as emblematic of the effort to reinvent Michigan’s economy. “Let’s get out there and realize the true power we have as Detroiters, as Michiganders, coming together, to recognize we’re in this together and we are going to win together.”
