A state board on Tuesday approved a $35 million jobs training grant to encourage General Motors to retain workers at its Spring Hill plant as the company looks to invest approximately $2 billion to produce electric vehicles, including the Cadillac LYRIQ.
The State Funding Board approved the FastTrack Job Training Assistance Grant. More information is available here.
The grant will help retrain the 2,000 workers to produce the new electric vehicle (EV), according to State Funding Board documents.
Spring Hill will be GM’s third plant to manufacture electric vehicles, and the first outside of Michigan, the documents say. The state’s investment will allow the paint and body shops to experience major expansions. General assembly will receive upgrades including new machines, conveyors, controls and tooling. The plant is the company’s largest facility in North America.
State Funding Board documents say renovation and expansion work will begin immediately.
The Tennessee Star reported last month that GM will invest nearly $2 billion in the plant to produce fully electric vehicles, including the LYRIQ.
Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles told The Star that Maury County competed against another location — which he did not specify — for the $2 billion investment. He said the Spring Hill GM facility currently has 3,100 employees.
“It really puts Tennessee on the map as being one of the key locations for EV technology for North America. That is the real significance. A $2 billion investment. It’s the largest corporate expansion in Tennessee’s history,” Ogles said.
In addition to the new electric LYRIQ SUV, traditionally powered Cadillacs that include the XT6 and XT5 will continue to be assembled in Spring Hill, the State Funding Board documents say.
The average hourly wage for the 2,000 jobs will be $31.79.
GM’s employment in Tennessee produces a 6.8 employment multiplier, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development said, citing the Center for Automotive Research. That means there are 5.8 other jobs in the Tennessee economy for every direct GM hourly and salaried job in the state.
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Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes.
Photo “Spring Hill GM Plant” by GM.
How are the returns coming on that GM Saturn plant?
Or the forced GM stock purchase by the American taxpayer negotiated by Bailout Bob Corker? Remember, the stocks that GM wouldn’t buy back, as they used the taxpayer bailout to build more plants in China?
GM has been manufacturing electric hybrids for ten years (while enjoying bailout money in the meanwhile). They should have been training their own.
Republicans have only increased spending, and motor fuel and auto registration taxes in that time. Plus taxpayers also had to “invest” $250,000 per job for Volkswagen. Corporate welfare for the globalist, foreign manufacturers and executive order shutdowns for Tennessee businesses.
Probably a good investment to keep the “build” in the Spring Hill plant. The weekly wages of the 2,000 affected employees equals just over 2.5 million dollars (before taxes). The 35 million will be recovered in sales tax revenue in a very short period of time. After the recovery….money in the bank that would not have been there without the 35 million investment. The fact that the community has to “incentivize” GM’s decision is annoying but the returns on the investment to the local economy are enormous.
Anyone else really tired of our tax dollars being used for cooperate welfare? That and the fact that so-called conservatives are the ones who rush to give our hard earned money away. Ogles just went down 15 notches in my rating politician system.
!Come on now! $12,500 per person to “retrain” someone how to assemble an electric car vs a gas car? This sounds like more corporate welfare, thanks to “Republicans”.
And when the “Green New Deal” is being rammed down our throats, many of these same “Republicans” will be claiming that it supports “EV” technology. Yada, yada yada!