GM announced Tuesday that it will invest about $2 billion in U.S. assembly and component plants, "creating or preserving" about 4,000 jobs at 17 plants in eight states.
The announcement had been widely expected, but details weren't confirmed until CEO Dan Akerson spoke today GM's Toledo, Ohio, transmission plant Tuesday. Toledo is to get $204 million and about 250 more jobs to build a fuel-efficient, eight-speed automatic transmission.
Akerson said, ""We are doing this because we are confident about demand for our vehicles and the economy."
Akerson also will visit other plants in the plan. They will also include the Warren (Mich.) Tech Center and the powertrain plant in Tonawanda, N.Y., according to a report by the Detroit Free Press.
Most of the jobs will be on the plant floor, but some white-collar jobs are in the plans. Hiring is expected to start this year and run through 2013.
About half the hires will be at Detroit-Hamtramck, where GM builds the Chevrolet Volt and is in the expected last year of building the Buick Lucerne and Cadillac DTS sedans. Later this year, it will be revamped to start building the 2013 Malibu.
The first of the new investments -- $131 million and about 250 additional jobs in Bowling Green, Ky. -- however, was announced separately last week. Factory improvements, new equipment and the new jobs there are to build the next-generation Chevrolet Corvette. The current model will be manufactured for at least two more model years, GM said.
GM said it would make specific investment announcements -- which plants get how much money and how many jobs -- over the next few months. the automakers said some deals depend on whether and which state and local governments provide incentives to get the jobs.
The jobs will go first to laid-off UAW members, and then to new hires, most of whom could be paid the second-tier wage of about $14 under the union contract.
"The UAW's goal has been to return all laid-off workers to active status and see the company begin hiring again," said Joe Ashton, th UAW's VP for GM, in a statement. "These announcements will ... bring General Motors back to full employment of our hourly workforce."
Citing the Center for Automotive Research, GM said the planned investments would add almost $2.9 billion to the U.S. GDP and create or preserve more than 28,000 jobs, counting other businesses connected to or benefiting from the GM jobs.
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