General Motors will convert more than 650 temporary workers to full-time positions this month, the American automaker announced Monday.
GM says the 650 hourly employees will transition from temporary to regular full-time employment over the course of the month. The employees work at nine GM manufacturing plants and other GM sites in Michigan, Indiana, Texas and Missouri.
“We are proud to welcome these team members as regular, full-time employees,” said GM’s vice president for North America Manufacturing and Labor Relations, Phil Kienle. “Our people are the heart and soul of everything we do and through their hard work and dedication to building quality products, they are taking the next step in their journey with GM.”
The issue of GM’s reliance on temporary workers was a driving factor behind the lengthy 40-day UAW strike back in 2019. The automaker agreed to promote more than 1,350 temporary workers to full-time status as part of the new contract agreement with the labor union, who are located at 14 plants across eight states. The contract also implemented a new, more straightforward path for workers who are hired on as temps to reach full-time status. In a statement released shortly after the contract was agreed upon, the UAW said “converting temporary employees to permanent status was a top priority,” for its negotiators.
GM says that employees who transition from temporary status to full-time “will see medical plan cost-share improvements, the addition of dental and vision coverage, company contributions into their 401(k) plans, profit sharing and life insurance coverage.” The UAW had previously accused GM of using temp workers so it did not have to provide such benefits to some assembly line workers.
“Today’s announcement affirms GM’s continuing commitment to building a strong U.S. manufacturing base,” Kienle added.
As of 2019, GM employed roughly 48,000 hourly workers in the United States.
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Comments
love to see this.
Nice to see. But GM is still a broken company. Sad to see GM only employs 48,000 people in the United States. There was a time years ago that GM employment in Flint Michigan alone exceeded 100,000 employees. The glory days are gone. Too many GM jobs manufacturing products outside the USA. GM used to be number one. Sad.
Personally, I’d like to see a crossover or hatchback based of the VSS-F platform for the B/C segment produced in the US. Something to serve as a replacement for the great American made cars like the Cruze and Sonic.
Another hot take, I’m a little sick of GM claiming that they throw so much money in BEV development, when clearly the sales just aren’t there… BUILD CARS IN THE U.S. THAT PEOPLE WANT.
I agree 100% brother Eric. Keep the jobs here.
Don’t forget that technical advances in manufacturing cause a decrease of the manual workers on the machines.
I remember the so-called automobile industry expert called Ratzel, claiming short before the closure of the Opel plant in Bochum , that the decline of the workforce from 20’000 in the best years of the 1960ies downn to 5’170 in 2011 “shows the decline of Opel”. Actually the decline was due to ever more efficient machinery. I guess that the 5’170 at the end produced as much or even more cars than the 20’000 a few decades ago.
Try to remember how an automobile assembly plant looked like in the 1960ies and how it is dominated today be robots and lifting machines.
I was a temp at Pratt and Whitney for 2 years. Then finally got to be a regular employee. That lasted another 11 years. Then they closed the plant and moved most of it to other countries. It’s whatever the bean counters decide to do.
As former GM management employee for thirty four years, I’m saddened by the continual downsizing, plant closures and reliance upon foreign made vehicle components which has contributed toward the plant and employee downsizing.
Also. let’s not lose sight of the ever increasing quality level of our foreign-owned auto companies, regardless if there product is manufactured/assembled in the US or elsewhere.