Autoworkers cheer a Monday announcement that GM will begin building the Chevrolet Equinox at the automaker’s plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., next year, and a midsized vehicle for the 2015 model year. The total investment of $255 million is projected to create nearly 1,900 jobs.
The Chevrolet Equinox will be built at the GM plant in Spring City, Tenn., next year.DETROIT — General Motors on Monday said it planned to bring nearly 700 jobs back to its idled assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., next year for work on any of the company’s cars whenever extra production is needed.
Such a flexible plant, which GM said would allow for “real-time reaction to sales spikes in a given car or crossover,” would be unusual in the auto industry. The company said it would spend $61 million preparing the plant to start building the Chevrolet Equinox, a small Canadian-built crossover for which GM has had difficulty keeping up with demand, in the second half of 2012.
GM said it would later add about 1,200 more jobs at the plant and invest $183 million to build a new midsize vehicle there for the 2015 model year.
GM agreed in September to reopen the Spring Hill plant as part of its four-year labor agreement with the United Automobile Workers union. The assembly plant, originally the home of GM’s now-defunct Saturn brand, shut down in 2009, though an engine plant on the site remains in operation.
“Spring Hill has a history as one of GM’s most innovative and flexible plants,” Cathy Clegg, GM’s vice president of labor relations, said in a statement. “We’re pleased that, working together with the UAW, we were able to build on that history and develop a plan to resume production at Spring Hill.”