(WXYZ) — The United Auto Workers is blasting an announcement by General Motors that they are investing more than $1 billion in a new paint plant in Mexico.
General Motors announced the investment in the Arizpe Ramos Manufacturing Complex in a Spanish language press release on their GM Mexico website.
The press release states that the goal is to make the plant the fifth GM manufacturing site in North America to produce electric vehicles. Both the Orion plant that the Factory Zero plant GM is building in Detroit are also included in those 5 plants.
Work on the plant has already begun, with the goal of producing batteries and components beginning in the second half of 2021. Vehicle production is targeted to begin in 2023.
The UAW has released the following statement about the investment:
At a time when General Motors is asking for a significant investment by the U.S. government in subsidizing electric vehicles, this is a slap in the face for not only UAW members and their families but also for U.S. taxpayers and the American workforce.
General Motors automobiles made in Mexico are sold in the United States and should be made right here, employing American workers. That is why our nation is investing in these companies. Taxpayer money should not go to companies that utilize labor outside the U.S. while benefiting from American government subsidies. This is not the America any of us signed on for. Frankly, it is unseemly.
The announcement also drew condemnation from Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, who released the following statement;
Electric vehicles must be built here in America by the finest workforce in the world – the American worker. Not one American dollar should support our own jobs being shipped off to Mexico – especially when we have the workers and the technology to manufacture the best vehicles of the future here at home. General Motors needs to reaffirm their commitment to working, American families. I am focused on ensuring auto innovation and manufacturing stays in the hands of hard-working American people so that the United States can remain the global leader for the next era. Legislation I am leading in Congress, the U.S.A. Electrify Forward Act and the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Future Act, will modernize and expand programs used to build and retool auto factories in the United States so that future generations of American workers will benefit long-term and at the same time decarbonize the economy.
