WSJ Online / Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved / By Sharon Terlep


In a surprising show of optimism at the Detroit auto show, each of the three Detroit-based car makers said Monday it may soon begin hiring U.S. factory workers.

General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC are considering hiring plans in expectation that U.S. vehicle demand will begin to recover from last year's anemic levels.

Such moves would help reverse a dramatic decline in U.S. auto manufacturing jobs that accelerated last year as vehicle sales sank to a 47-year low. The hiring plans, however, wouldn't make a dent in the job loss of last year, when the industry cut 126,000 U.S. factory positions.

GM North American chief Mark Reuss told reporters Monday the company hopes to bring in new workers at a reduced wage and may even reopen a Tennessee factory closed last year as part of the company's government-backed revamping.

Ford said a $450 million investment to build its next-generation hybrid models and its first plug-in electric cars in Michigan should yield 1,000 jobs in the beleaguered state.

Meantime, Chrysler Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said his company will begin hiring workers this year if demand recovers as expected. "We do need to re-establish a base of talent that I think has been lost as a result of restructuring," he said.

The companies also must deal with workers who have been laid off but are still receiving some of their pay under union agreements. GM has about 6,700 laid-off workers; Ford and Chrysler haven't released their figures.

Meantime, Toyota Motor Co. said it is looking to increase production in anticipation the U.S. market will grow at least 10% from last year's 10.4 million sales level. The Japanese company, which produced about 63% of its products in North America last year, is considering raising local production but has yet to make any firm determinations, it said.

Even the industry's smaller players may have to stretch to meet improving demand. A senior Subaru executive said Monday a factory in Lafayette, Ind., that builds the Subaru Outback, Legacy, and Tribeca is at maximum output. "We're using all the capacity we have," said Timothy Colbeck, sales chief for Subaru of America Inc., a unit of Fuji Heavy Industries.

ytownfootball wrote: What's the minimum wage again?

ZWICK 4 PREZ wrote: Yes. I see no negative affects on the economy if we start paying everyone minimum wage.

ZWICK 4 PREZ wrote: Yes. I see no negative affects on the economy if we start paying everyone minimum wage.

ytownfootball wrote:

You going to be the first to sign up for that minimum wage thing?

ernest_t_bass wrote:
I sense your sarcasm. We're WAY past the point where we could do this. I'll get murdered for this, but I don't see why a factory worker should make what they do. I see factory work as a perfect job to be making (at least start out at) minimum wage.

Can't do minimum wage now b/c prices are so high.

ytownfootball wrote: Haha, yeah I thought so.

Ernest, as a college educated person who has been there and done that, I'll only say there's a lot more that goes with that wage that took ten years to reach and 5 before you even got a raise...a lot more.

ZWICK 4 PREZ wrote: I do agree you in a sense that pay should be a fair market value. No one without a skill should be paid any higher than minimim wage b/c u can get anyone to do the job.
Someone sweeping a floor shouldnt make the same as someone welding. And no one should make as much as an Electrical Engineer.

ernest_t_bass wrote:

ytownfootball wrote: Haha, yeah I thought so.

Ernest, as a college educated person who has been there and done that, I'll only say there's a lot more that goes with that wage that took ten years to reach and 5 before you even got a raise...a lot more.

I didn't follow your last sentence.

ytownfootball wrote: Unions do harbor much of the blame, however I liken the big picture to a spoiled kid that got everything he demanded from his parents. Who's more at fault for the POS kid, the kid that demanded shit or the POS parent that couldn't say "NO"?

ernest_t_bass wrote: ... and inflation would have never been this rampant. Just a thought, I could be wrong.

Con_Alma wrote:

ernest_t_bass wrote: ... and inflation would have never been this rampant. Just a thought, I could be wrong.

Inflation has not been "rampant" for a long, long time.

Con_Alma wrote: I think we are in for some nasty increases....gotta pay the piper for all this fake money out there.