General Motors Co . will add a shift and more than 650 jobs at its assembly plant in Flint where it makes the hot-selling GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado pickup trucks, a person familiar with the plan said Saturday. The move is yet another sign that truck sales are on the rise for the recovering automaker.
An announcement is scheduled for Monday and comes as Chevy sales to small businesses have increased for three straight months, which GM says is an indication that small businesses across the country are beginning to reinvest.
The Detroit News reported earlier Saturday about the additional jobs at the factory.
The plant, which employs more than 2,000 hourly and salaried workers, builds the heavy-duty Chevrolet and GMC Sierra crew and regular cab trucks and the light-duty Chevrolet Silverado crew and regular cab trucks.
The additional workers will come from GM's pool of laid-off workers, so no new employees will be hired, the person briefed on the announcement said. In the fourth quarter of last year, GM had about 3,500 laid-off workers in the pool nationwide.
There will be no added investment at the plant because GM is adding a third shift that will use the same equipment as the first two shifts.
A message seeking comment was left by the AP on Saturday with Ben Mata, president of United Auto Workers Local 598, which represents the plant.
The birthplace of GM, which sits 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of the company's headquarters in Detroit, Flint was once was a powerful auto manufacturing town, but its economy and population have steadily declined over the past few decades. Flint Assembly opened in 1947 when the city was in a much different situation
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