GM To Rehire Flint Workers - Analyst Blog

General Motors Corporation (GM) appeared to be the saviour for workers in Flint, Michigan by announcing its plan to rehire 750 people at the heavy-duty pickup manufacturing plant. The decision was backed by the need to meet robust demand for Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks.

Despite rising gasoline prices, sales of both the lineups escalated 17% to about 500,000 units last year. About 23% of these trucks were built in the Flint assembly plant.

GM operates five factories in the Flint area by employing 4,700 hourly and salaried workers. The plant under study runs two production shifts and employs about 2,100 hourly and salaried workers.

The automaker plans to add a third shift at the plant to accommodate the new workers. GM revealed that it will begin hiring the workers in the second quarter of the year and the shift will operational in the subsequent quarter.

GM retrenched about 3,000 employees in the U.S. by shutting down plants and reducing production shifts at the time of its bankruptcy filing in 2009. The automaker had halted production at the Flint North plant for the last time in December 2010.

The automaker's plan to hire new workers is undoubtedly backed by the rebound in customer demand. Its sales rose 12.2% to 8.39 million vehicles worldwide in 2010.

However, GM is not the exception to hire additional workers in the industry. Recently, Ford Motor Company (F) announced that it would hire 7,000 workers at its plants by the end of 2012.