Reuters, June 5 – A new generation of General Motors Co.’s internal combustion engine heavy-duty (HD) trucks will be produced at two production facilities in Flint, Michigan, the company announced on Monday (GM.N). This would need an investment of more than $1 billion.
The next generation of GM’s heavy duty trucks will be supported by investments totaling $1.7 billion at Flint plants this year, according to the automaker.
A sixth generation of GM’s small block V-8 combustion engine will be produced in Flint Engine Operations at a cost of $579 million, according to the automaker. Upgrades to a different Flint site that aids in truck manufacture will cost an additional $103.5 million.
The newly updated Ford Motor Co (F.N) Super Duty and other heavy-duty variations of Stellantis NV’s (STLAM.MI) Ram pickup, among the most successful products marketed by the Detroit Three automakers, or any rival, compete with General Motors’ trucks.
In contrast to the previous year, GM sold approximately 288,000 HD pickup trucks last year, an increase of 38%.
With a deadline of September 14 to achieve an agreement with its American manufacturing employees, GM anticipates to begin contract negotiations with the United Auto employees union. A primary union objective is investment in job security.
The UAW vice president in charge of the GM department, Mike Booth, stated in a statement addressing the Flint expenditures, “The company should continue to invest in its workforce when business is booming as it has been for the past decade — due to the hard work of UAW members.”
The UAW released a video just before GM made its statement in Flint, in which union president Shawn Fain and the head of the union’s GM department criticized the carmaker for outsourcing semiconductor manufacture, which was formerly done at a GM facility in Kokomo, Indiana.
Fain is from Kokomo, and members of his family were employed by the former 15,000-person GM factory. Currently, the facility only employs 100 people. In the video, Fain accuses GM for reducing American semiconductor output in 2017 only to experience a scarcity of semiconductor imports over the subsequent two years.