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Auto Recovery Boosts Indiana Jobs

June 16, 2011

In 2008, Evansville, Ind., Local 16 Business Manager Paul Green feared that one of the bedrocks of the local economy, General Motors’ Bedford powertrain plant, was in danger of shuttering its doors for good.

“It looked like it was gone,” Green says of the factory that employs 400 people, including more than 35 Local 16 electricians who help maintain the facility.

Teetering on the edge of bankruptcy after the onset of the Great Recession, General Motors, along with Chrysler, was rescued by the federal government in exchange for cuts to wasteful spending and improved products.

Now posting its first profits in years, General Motors is putting billions back into the economy – investments that are helping make the Big Three competitive again and putting Americans back to work.

The company announced in June that it would invest $49 million in new tooling and equipment for the Bedford plant to produce more fuel-efficient transmission, which is expected to save or create 91 jobs.

Green says:

It shows that the investment the taxpayer put into the auto industry is paying off. Those jobs don’t just help those workers inside the plant, but the entire community.

The Bedford investment is part a $2 billion commitment by the auto maker to revamp 17 factories in eight states, which is expected to save or create 4,000 jobs.

Green says:

Since GM and Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy, the auto industry has created 115,000 jobs. Chrysler also recently announced it was putting $843 million into its transmission facility in Kokomo, Ind.

Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Flicker user @optikalblitz