FW GM plant prepares for new shift

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Fort Wayne's General Motors Assembly plant will soon welcome 700 new employees as the plant expands by adding a third shift, GM officials announced Tuesday afternoon.

The new workers will all be transfer union employees. "They'll come from either closed plants, idled plants, or plants re-tooling for new products," said Scott Landstra, Lead Area Manager for the Fort Wayne plant.

Dozens of closed and idled GM plants are behind Fort Wayne's good fortune. Fort Wayne Assembly already makes the Chevrolet Sierra, but it will soon take over production for the heavy duty Silverado. While General Motors acknowledges the market is still soft, demand for the Silverado and Sierra has gone up, boosting market share value for heavy duty trucks by 40%.

"As we look into 2010, we see a need for more volume than we can produce on two shifts. And so that necessitates a need for a third shift," said Landstra.

Current and transfer union employees will enter a bidding process to figure out who will fill the new third shift.

"The new employees won't be all just put in a box on the third shift," explained UAW Local 2209 President Orval Plumlee. "Some people, first shift may work better for their families or second shift or whatever their personal situation is. And they will be given that type of opportunity to bid."

As the auto maker shut down plants across the country earlier this year, Plumlee hoped the plant would survive. Tuesday's announcement solidified his confidence in the plant and its workers.

"My confidence is born by people out there on that line every day. They work so hard. It's just hard to compare our product to anything else out there. The biggest thing is, nuts and bolts are nuts and bolts, but when you have the craftsmanship and partnership that this workforce has with one another and the local management, it's just hard to defeat that type of environment."

The third shift is expected to begin work in April, 2010.