Chrysler Group has announced that it will add a third shift at its Belvidere, Illinois, assembly plant from July, creating around 1,000 jobs.
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The facility currently employs 2,650 people. Some of the new jobs will be filled with current Chrysler employees from other plants but the majority are expected to be new recruits.
The Belvidere plant started building the new 2007 Dodge Caliber last January and will begin production of the new Jeep Compass – that shares the Caliber platform – this month.
Production of the new 2007 Jeep Patriot will begin later this year. The plant is flexible enough to vary the production mix between the three products anywhere from 0 to 100% of each model.
Belvidere, the former Dodge Neon plant, added its second shift in March. Employees are working under a new organisational model designed to foster greater creativity and innovation by providing greater support and authority to assembly line operators.
The plant was retooled to build the three new models with a US$419m investment in late 2005.
