United Auto Workers officials say G.M. plans to build two mid-size cars at its shuttered Spring Hill, TN plant, adding 600 jobs by next year and up to 1,700 jobs over the next four years. The reopening of the former Saturn assembly plant is part of a contract agreement that is expected to create more than 6,000 new jobs at GM in the U.S.
UAW President Bob King said the tentative agreement “creates thousands and thousands of new jobs … and brings production back to the United States that had been moved to Mexico and other parts of the world.”
The UAW agreed in the new contract to lower the wages for new hires to $15 per hour. Veteran carworkers will continue to earn as much as $28 per hour. The new contract would steady G.M.’s labor costs, analysts say, and allow it to stay profitable even if car sales remain historically low. The UAW’s 40,000 members are expected to ratify the deal.
