Posted on June 23 at 7:52 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Opportunity knocks for those who want to open the door. Money for training and education will "flood" the community. If you want two years of free education, it will be there for the taking. Power generation, medical fields, business degrees...all good jobs with beneifits. Please consider stopping the bull**** and use this forum to help people understand there are options. But be real: the options require speciallized training, sacrifice, and effort. This is a great community with considerable assets. New employers will land here in the next five years. Opportunity does indeed knock for those who want to transition to a new chapter in their lives. It may be more satisfying than what you leave behind.
On GM plant to cut more production
Posted on June 10 at 9:41 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
chad vader, I wonder what the real story is too. My point in posting stories about expansion plans in the auto industry is that we need to have an informed, realistic view of where the market is headed. No, I'm not going to buy a Kia. I have my eye on a Malibu hybrid. But even in Japan, new auto jobs are going for $22/hour and you can't argue with the quality coming out of those plants. Beemers made in South Carolina where the starting wage is $14.50. I don't like it but that is what the market will bare. Wishing the world would rewind to 1975 is, well, unrealistic. Individuals need to constantly upgrade their skills so that they have a place in the labor market. Not just when they are young; it's a lifelong journey. We as a nation have embraced competition as founding principle of our society. It's, as they say, a full contact sport. And it doesn't alway feel fair. The market weeds out inefficiency and rewards innovation. Consumer tastes are fickle. The Chinese love Buicks. Go figure.
On GM plant to cut more production
Posted on June 10 at 8:09 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Kia's hiring
BY TONY ADAMS -ledger-enquirer.com --
It was a moment nearly two years in the making Tuesday, and one that thousands of job prospects have been anxiously awaiting.
With a yank, Byung Mo Ahn, president of Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia Inc., pulled down a banner on the wall behind him, uncovering the words: "Now hiring!"
Preliminary estimates from the Georgia Department of Labor indicate as many as 30,000 people will take part in the scramble to fill roughly 2,500 jobs up for grabs at the Kia auto assembly plant being built in West Point, Ga., off Interstate 85 between LaGrange and the Alabama state line. It's the automaker's first such facility in North America.
Another 3,000 or so auto-related jobs are expected to be created by parts suppliers clustering in the vicinity to do business with the factory.
The signing ended fierce competition between several Southeastern states to land the factory.
Ken Stewart, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, ticked off the dizzying numbers behind the project -- a $1.2 billion investment, nearly 2,200 acres, production of 300,000 vehicles per year, and a $4 billion economic impact for the state.
The pay range for production "team members" will be $14.90 to $23.50 per hour, while maintenance and tool and die employees will be paid $20.80 per hour to start, topping out at $27 per hour. A rotating shift premium will add $1 per hour.
"Performance expectations will be high at KMMG," said Randy Jackson, director of human resources at the Kia factory. "Each team member will be encouraged to contribute their knowledge, experience and ideas to equip KMMG in growing our organization. The KMMG plant will be made a friendly and productive atmosphere where each team member will be treated with dignity and respect."
On GM plant to cut more production
Posted on June 10 at 7:46 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
More insight into what is happening in the auto industry worldwide....
BusinessWeek -- In the midst of a dramatic earnings slump, Toyota, Nissan, and Honda are ramping up production fast. Not in the U.S., their most profitable market, but back in Japan, where domestic auto sales just hit a 25-year low.
Every major Japanese automaker is building plants at home or adding capacity to existing ones. A Toyota subsidiary is constructing a 120,000-car plant in Miyagi, north of Tokyo. It's Toyota's first such plant in Japan since 1993. Nissan, which not so long ago was slashing production in the country, is expanding capacity by 22% at its Kyushu factory. Honda is spending $1.5 billion on a new factory and engine plant in Saitama, just outside Tokyo.
Why all the outlays? After all, Japan remains an expensive place to make cars, with wages 10 times higher than in China. A shrinking population is causing labor shortages. The yen's recent 15% surge against the dollar makes Japan-made cars even pricier. Throw in contracting domestic sales, and the moves seem to defy business logic.
One explanation is the flexibility that the investment brings. Japan's high-tech plants excel at switching production from one model to another. That's especially useful when auto demand is sinking or flat in mature markets but surging in the Middle East, Russia, China, and India. Nissan's Kyushu plant, for example, exports to 160 markets and produces eight different models on a single production line.
Japanese engineers and workers, while more expensive than their counterparts in developing markets, are still a good deal. One reason is that Japan's wage levels, after barely rising in a decade, are not as high as they once were relative to other developed countries. According to consultant AlixPartners, Japanese industrial workers in 2006 made around $22 an hour, just two-thirds the level in Germany. Moreover, it's still rare in Japan for workers to switch from one automaker to another, so a well-trained, seasoned workforce is a given. "It's not so expensive in Japan, and when you consider the quality, motivation, and diligence with which people work, the value-for-money is unbeatable," says Markus Schädlich, president of Karmann Japan
On GM plant to cut more production
Posted on June 10 at 7:01 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Just so you know what the economic development market is like down south....
NASHVILLE — Tennessee could be at a competitive disadvantage in a battle with Alabama over a proposed Volkswagen plant if government financial incentives turn out to be the key factor in the automaker's decision on where to build the facility. Volkswagen said in April that it would decide in July whether to build a U.S. assembly facility, and that if it does, the plant would be built in Tennessee, Alabama or Michigan.
Analysts and economic-development experts believe that Michigan is an extremely long shot to win the plant.
But if incentives are the key, Alabama might have the upper hand because that state has a history of pledging hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and other incentives to automakers and other industries on single projects to persuade them to build plants in the state.
For those three plants, Alabama initially spent a combined $664.5 million dollars in public funds for such items as site preparation, roads, rail spurs, utilities and tax breaks.
In comparison, Tennessee has attracted two auto assembly plants: Nissan's Smyrna facility in 1983, followed by General Motors Corp.'s Saturn plant in Spring Hill in 1985. Together, those two projects received just $95.6 million in state incentives.
And this year, Tennessee is spending up to $35 million to retrain workers at the former Saturn plant so GM can build a new Chevrolet crossover utility vehicle there, bringing back 2,400 workers laid off when the Saturn plant closed in March 2007.
But to show how far Alabama will go to attract a major new industry, the state put up $817 million — $314 million in cash — to land the German steel maker ThyssenKrupp near Montgomery last year.
In the battle for the Volkswagen plant, which could employ up to 2,000 people initially and represent a $1 billion investment by the German automaker, Alabama is ready to "do whatever it takes to win," Alabama Development Office Director Neal Wade said.
"Volkswagen has not yet told us what they need" in the way of incentives, he said. "But when they do, we're ready to give them what they ask for."
"The governor's instructions are that we be competitive, aggressive and creative in dealing with Volkswagen, and it is our intention to win this project," he said.
Last year, the Alabama legislature gave the governor a $400 million fund, provided by a bond issue, to bring new industries to the state.
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has included $100 million in a discretionary fund in the state's 2009 budget, now under consideration by the legislature, which could be used to provide incentives such as site improvements and job training to bring new jobs.
On GM plant to cut more production
Posted on June 10 at 6:26 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Despite slashing some 8,000 jobs worldwide, BMW plans to hire more workers to man its Spartanburg, S.C. production center, while simultaneously upping the night shift from eight hours to ten. The South Carolina plant currently produces the X5 and Z4, but with production of the X6 CUV beginning a few weeks back, BMW is looking to staff an additional 200 jobs to keep the assembly plant on boil. Those of you looking for jobs in the Spartanburg area should expect to bring in $12.50 an hour during the day shift and additional buck if you're willing to toil away in the wee hours of the night.
[Source: Automotive News – Sub. Req.]
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On Keeping the engine on
Posted on July 30 at 9:45 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Hmmm...I thought 43 percent of Toyota's NA sales last year were SUVs and light trucks. Gm has a competitive product in every segment Toyota is in except the small hybrid Prius. But in 07 Toyota only sold 183,000+ Prius models (due largely to a shortage of batteries.) The halo effect of the Prius has benefitted the entire Toyota brand even though it really has been a small part of the mix. My take is that Honda is actually the company that read the market the best in terms of product planning. Their only mistake was a radical design for the hybrid Insight that short-circuited sales. You might note their sales have actually increased in '08.