DETROIT — General Motors said Thursday that it would invest $5.4 billion in its American factories over the next three years as part of a broader effort to modernize production facilities and secure jobs.þþG.M., the nation’s largest automaker, has been methodically upgrading and expanding its manufacturing plants in the United States and elsewhere since its bankruptcy and government bailout in 2009.þþThe moves are another example of the way auto companies are taking advantage of healthy profits and a strong American car market to increase spending on plants and new technology.þþG.M. declined to specify where the investments would be made, other than naming three Michigan plants that will receive a combined $783.5 million in improvements.þþ“The common thread among our investments is the focus on product improvements that benefit customers,” said Cathy Clegg, G.M.’s head of North American manufacturing.þþThe company said that Michigan plants in the cities of Pontiac, Lansing and Warren will receive new equipment as part of the overall modernization program. G.M. said the Lansing investment, in particular, would help the factory there retain 1,900 jobs.þþG.M., Ford Motor and Fiat Chrysler will begin negotiations this summer with the United Automobile Workers union on a new contract for more than 130,000 American factory workers.þþIn past contract talks, the Detroit companies have made new investments in plants to help set a positive tone for the negotiations.þþBut this year’s talks could be more confrontational than usual. Union leaders have vowed to seek pay increases for entry-level employees who are paid $19 an hour and veteran union workers who make $28 an hour.þþIt is also the first contract since the bankruptcies of G.M. and Chrysler in 2009 in which the U.A.W. will have the right to strike. The union gave up that power in the last negotiations in 2011 as part of concessions made with the federal government during the auto bailouts.þþA union official, Cindy Estrada, praised the G.M. investments as an example of how the company was working with the U.A.W. to preserve jobs. “These investments represent the power of our collaboration to create jobs and improve competitiveness,” said Ms. Estrada, who heads the union’s G.M. division.þþG.M., which has about 50,000 union workers in the United States, has been spending heavily on manufacturing and product development as it rebuilds in the aftermath of its financial crisis.þþThe company recently announced new investments in Mexico and is planning to expand its technical center in Michigan and an S.U.V. plant in Texas.þþFord has also been steadily investing in its North American operations, although most of its recent capital expenditures have been in China.þþFiat Chrysler is studying plans to expand a plant in Ohio that builds Jeep Wranglers, or moving the next-generation Wrangler to an existing plant.þþ
Source: NY Times
