The contract the UAW and Chrysler agreed on recently included the creation of around 2,100 jobs. Now, the New York Times is reporting that 1,100 of them will be in Toledo, Ohio:
The investment will allow the plant to build replacements for two small S.U.V.’s, the Jeep Liberty and Dodge Nitro. Mr. Marchionne said the Liberty replacement might instead be called the Cherokee, resurrecting a nameplate that Chrysler discontinued in the United States a decade ago but still uses elsewhere in the world. [...]Chrysler said it planned to spend $500 million on an expanded body shop and other upgrades to the Toledo plant, which currently employs about 1,800 people and will gain a second shift when the new workers are hired.
The new jobs will pay the lower, second-tier wages, currently just under $15. The recent contract provides raises for second-tier workers, increasing their hourly rate to $19.28 over the four years of the contract. As sad as it is that this is what constitutes a good blue-collar job in America today, that is the case, and the mayor of Toledo called this announcement "the equivalent of a blood transfusion."
As Yahoo business columnist Daniel Gross tweeted, sarcastically, "Yep, that bailout, which cost U.S. ~ $1.2 b sure failed bigtime."