General Motors is to take on almost 300 workers and spend US$545 million on five Michigan plants.

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But The Associated Press (AP) noted that GM’s home state has lost an estimated 130,000 vehicle making jobs in the last five years and has axed more than 27,000 workers since 2000 alone in the face of mounting competition and rising health and pension costs.


Of the new investment, $163 million will go to the Pontiac Assembly Centre, where production of the next-generation Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups is scheduled to begin later this year, the report said.


GM reportedly plans to hire 280 people at the Pontiac plant but all will be workers who are currently employed at GM plants or have been laid off from their jobs.


AP noted that GM has several thousand laid-off workers in a so-called jobs bank – they get most of their pay and benefits even when they’re not working under lucrative union deals negotiated in better times.

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The report said GM has also revealed three improvement projects already started not announced previously: $152 million at the Ypsilanti transmission plant to increase production capacity for rear-wheel-drive, six-speed transmissions; $60 million in the Romulus engine plant for making the small-block V8 engines that will go into the new full-size trucks; and $32 million to update the hydroforming equipment at the Pontiac metal stamping plant, which uses water to help make the complex body curves of the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky roadsters.


GM also said it is spending $138 million expanding the body shop in the Lansing Grand River assembly plant that will make the new Cadillac CTS sedan from late this year or early next year, The Associated Press added.


Consulting firm IRN analyst Erich Merkle told the news agency that GM was simply putting a positive spin on investments that had to be made anyway because there are some significant changes to the vehicle models.


“It’s a little bit of puffery, to offset the bad news that’s been out there the last three or four months,” Merkle reportedly said, adding: “In automotive terms, it’s pocket change. It’s really not that much money in the scheme of things.”