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GM to add 1,200 workers at 2 Michigan factories

DETROIT — General Motors is adding 1,200 jobs at two Michigan factories to build midsize SUVs and two new luxury sedans. GM said Friday that its Lansing Delta Township plant will get a third shift and 800 more workers to build the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave SUVs, which have three rows of seats. The Lansing Grand River plant will get a second shift and 400 more workers to build two new Cadillac sedans, the CT4 and CT5. Employees laid off at other GM factories will fill the new jobs first, then workers will be added, GM spokesman Dan Flores said. The company has not determined yet how many new people will be needed, he said. Both additional shifts will start working sometime between April and June, the company said. Lansing Delta Township now employs about 2,500 salaried and blue-collar workers, while the Grand River plant has 1,400. GM sold more than 147,000 Traverse SUVs in the U.S. last year, a 0.4% increase from 2018. Enclave sales were up 3% to just over 51,000, according to Autodata Corp. Related Video:

The new presidential limo is almost ready and way bigger than a Suburban

If you're familiar with the current presidential limo, which is nicknamed The Beast, you know it's based on a medium-duty truck platform. This new one, shown in aerial spy photos, appears to be just as huge. The vehicles flanking it in these shots are Chevrolet Suburbans, basically the largest passenger vehicle you can buy. And while the limo looks car-shaped, it's very tall and much longer than the three-row SUV. You might say it's yuge. Like its predecessor, The Beast 2.0 is being developed in secret because all of its various systems and defenses are matters of national security. We are fairly confident that it has lots of armor protection, glass that's about five inches thick, and special systems to clean the air in the event of a biological warfare attack. The current Beast is also said to carry a pint or two of the President's blood type just in case something does happen. When the President is being transported in a motorcade, he is at his most vulnerable, so Cadillac One and the vehicles that surround it have to be prepared for almost anything. In fact, two identical presidential limos travel together to make it harder for would-be attackers to do bad stuff. The Suburban escort it's getting here at the GM proving grounds is appropriate, since most of the vehicles used by the Secret Service to accompany the President's motorcade are big GM SUVs. By the looks of this camouflaged prototype, GM is nearing completion of testing the new Presidential car. The styling is a mix of CT6 sedan and Escalade, with a little XTS thrown in, and it looks a lot more sleek by comparison than the current blocky Beast. When it's ready, President Donald Trump will be the first to ride in it on official business and the current beasts will probably be retired and end up in a museum. Related Video: Featured Gallery Cadillac One Presidential Limo Spy Photos View 13 Photos Image Credit: Chris Doane Automotive Government/Legal Spy Photos Cadillac Luxury Sedan the beast cadillac one

GM announces net 220 job increase as Trump visits Michigan

GM announced today that about 900 jobs would be added (or, importantly, retained) ahead of President Trump's arrival in Michigan, where he is expected to discuss his plan to roll back fuel economy standards. The timing of the announcement is almost certainly not coincidental, as appending it to a Trump visit gives it a higher profile and dovetails with the President's jobs agenda. It's less likely the decision itself was made for those reasons, but the free PR boost is a nice bonus. As for those 900 jobs themselves, they aren't all new jobs. The only net gain is approximately 220 jobs at the Romulus Powertrain Plant, which produces the 10-speed automatic transmission that's proliferating through the company's lineup. The 180 jobs at Flint Assembly and 500 jobs at Lansing Delta Township are retained jobs – that is to say, spots the company found for workers who would otherwise have been laid off. By the way, the Flint jobs will help with production of heavy-duty pickups, and the Lansing jobs are to produce the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave. Finding jobs for manufacturing workers in the auto sector, whether new or retained, is admirable. No matter how GM couches it, the company has created or retained a total of 7,000 jobs this year, and its total reinvestment in US production is around $1 billion. But these decisions are business ones, not political ones – timing the announcements to make them seem inspired by economic policy, or the political situation, is simply smart PR. Related Video: Image Credit: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images Celebrities Government/Legal Buick Cadillac Chevrolet GMC