IMC Companies add 158 Tennessee jobs
The trucking, warehousing and logistics company IMC announced Wednesday it will invest $23 million to relocate its Memphis headquarters to Collierville, Tennessee, where it will add 158 more workers.
Construction on the 75,000-square-foot Collierville facility is underway and expected to be complete later this year.
Family-owned and operated for 40 years, IMC plays an integral role in the international supply chain industry. The company has grown to provide services that include drayage, expedited services, warehousing, chassis provisioning and secured container storage.
“Growth has always been part of the culture at IMC Companies,” said Mark H. George, chairman of IMC Companies. “I’m proud to be able to expand our investment in Tennessee where we started IMC Companies 40 years ago.”
IMC has more than 2,200 drivers and trucks across the U.S. and is the largest marine drayage company in the country.
“IMC’s decision to expand in Shelby County underscores the state’s business-friendly climate and skilled workforce,” said Bob Rolfe, commissioner of economic and community development in Tennessee.
Mercedes Benz hires hundreds in Alabama
Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Inc. launched a campaign Wednesday to attract several hundred more production workers for its plants in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
The new hires will initially be paid $20 an hour, rising to $25 or more an hour after regular wage increases over four years. The staff additions are designed, in part, to help Mercedes to begin producing two electric vehicles – the EQS SUV and EQE SUV – in 2022. Mercedes is also opening an EV battery pack assembly facility on a second Alabama campus in Bibb County.
“As our production continues to accelerate and evolve, we are growing the team we’ve built with additional support on a local level,” said Michael Göbel, president and CEO of Mercedes Benz U.S. International.”
Jobs are available immediately in assembly, the body and paint shops. Positions are also available at its battery plant, where workers will assemble new technology, high-voltage EV battery systems.
Best Buy adds tech support memberships
Just in time for the holidays, Best Buy has rolled out a new $200 membership for customers across the country that will not only offer tech support and waived delivery fees but also exclusive access to some of the holiday season’s hardest-to-find products.
Best Buy tested the membership with a pilot program in Minnesota and a few other markets. The membership program is now called the Totaltech program.
For $200 a year, members receive free 24/7 Geek Squad tech support, plus up to two years of product protection on most Best Buy purchases, free delivery and standard installation and exclusive Totaltech member prices.
This holiday season, which is expected to be plagued with supply issues, Totaltech members will receive “exclusive access to some of the season’s hardest-to-find products,” the company said.
One of the sales Totaltech members will have access to will be “Member Monday,” a new special event that offers members exclusive deals on popular tech products. Member Monday starts Oct. 18 and will run nearly every week during the holiday season.
As part of the national rollout, Best Buy is converting 3.1 million customers that are already enrolled for its earlier tech support service to the new program.
Biden restores NEPA reviews of projects
In the latest reversal of a Trump-era environmental rollback, President Joe Biden is restoring federal regulations guiding environmental reviews of major infrastructure projects such as highways and pipelines. The reviews were scaled back by the Trump administration in a bid to fast-track the projects.
The White House Council on Environmental Quality said Wednesday it will restore key provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act, a bedrock environmental law designed to ensure community safeguards during environmental reviews for a wide range of federal projects and decisions.
Former President Donald Trump overhauled the rules last year in a bid to accelerate projects he said would boost the economy and provide jobs. The rule change imposed last year restricted the timelines for environmental reviews and public comment and allowed federal officials to disregard a project’s role in cumulative effects, such as climate change.
The 2020 changes caused implementation challenges for federal agencies and “sowed confusion among stakeholders and the general public,” the White House said in a statement. The changes proposed Wednesday will restore regulatory certainty and “help ensure that American infrastructure gets built right the first time and delivers real benefits – not harms – to people who live nearby,” Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory said.
– Compiled by Dave Flessner