General Motors To Invest $1.5 Billion To Expand North American Operations
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General Motors will invest roughly $1.5 billion to expand its operations in North America in 2013, according to the automaker’s President of North America Mark Reuss. His comments were delivered at the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit last week.
Even though Reuss didn’t provide specific details, such as where the money will be spent and how many jobs will be created, GM forecasts the industry to sell 15 million to 15.5 million new vehicles in the United States in 2013. The increase in sales will require an increase in production capacity to keep up with demand.
Since exiting bankruptcy in 2009, General Motors has created nearly 18,000 hourly jobs. Last Tuesday, UAW President Bob King told the Detroit Free Press that he expects GM to add jobs in the United States “very shortly”. He also said that the figure will eventually top 20,000.
Most recently, The General has expressed interest in opening negotiations early with members of the CAMI plant in Ingersoll, Ontario to determine the financial feasibility of proudcing the next-generation Chevy Equinox and GMC Terrain crossovers. The plant produces the current generations of each vehicle.
GM also has announced plans to move production of the next-generation Chevrolet Camaro from its plant in Oshawa, Ontario to Lansing Grand River assembly. The next-generation Camaro will utilize GM’s Alpha architecture that underpins the Cadillac ATS and next-generation CTS. As such, the move is part of the automaker’s global platform consolidation strategy, which seeks to cut the amount of platforms and engines in half by 2018, thereby decreasing complexity and increasing the company’s profitably.
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GM is predicting the industry to sell 15-15.5 million vehicles…
Absolutely correct. Good catch. Fixed.
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Thank you for that. We enjoy doing what we do
Now we see where the US companies will quickly bypass the transplants in hourly cost. Within 5 years we will see a large number of old time, full pay UAW workers retiring and replaced by $15 2nd tier workers. The GM/Ford/Chrysler vehicle manufacturing cost will drop and be under the transplants.
Then again the transplants will most likely drop the hourly wage to stay competitive.
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121123/AUTO0103/211230354
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2012/12/meet-the-millenials-who-build-batteries-for-the-chevy-volt/
From Forbes:
5 – Labor costs are lower. A game-changing union contract in 2007 (further modified during GM’s 2009 bankruptcy and again in 2011) sharply reduced GM’s average hourly labor cost by allowing a lower starting wage for new hires and by shifting responsibility for retiree health care to a new UAW-controlled trust. GM’s total labor cost, including benefits, is now estimated to be $56 per hour, on a par with Toyota Motor‘s $55, according to the Center for Automotive Research. As older workers retire, GM will be able to hire new workers at half the wage. By 2015, CAR estimates that 23% of GM workers will be earning the lower tier wage.
If I worked at GM for $15.00 an hour, I would be driving a Honda or Kia. I could not afford a GM car with such low wages, we are not living in China. But Gm wants our skilled workers to be paid like the cheap Chinese. If they want to save money, then cut the white-collar pay and the CEO’s stock options. Better yet install solar power at all plants. I have worked at several GM plants and there is a lot of waste.
The $15.00 per hour is without year-end bonuses, which can sometimes add up to be fairly significant.
Not only that, but GM like workers get certain discounts that aren’t available to “regular” consumers. And even if they didn’t the price of a (inferior) Kia isn’t that much lower than that of a comparable Chevy. If anything, the workers might buy used rather than new.
As far as waste is concerned, GM is one of the leading automakers when it comes to using solar power in manufacturing:
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2012/08/gm-adds-8-15-megawatt-solar-array-to-opels-russelsheim-plant-in-germany/