GM Just Blinked After Trump’s Tariff War Escalated
GM is expected to add roughly 225-250 additional full-time jobs at the Indiana factory
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by Brad Anderson
GM’s facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana, builds the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra.
The company still hasn’t disclosed how many additional trucks will be built in Indiana.
Current US production is supplemented by production Canada and Mexico.
As tensions rise in the ongoing trade scuffle between the US and the rest of the world, American automakers are starting to make moves—and fast. Not long after President Trump announced sweeping 25% tariffs on automotive imports, General Motors has responded by revealing plans to boost production of light-duty trucks at its Fort Wayne, Indiana, assembly plant.
Though GM hasn’t made a formal public announcement, employees at the Indiana facility were informed of the shift last Thursday. The Fort Wayne plant currently builds two of the company’s most important workhorses, the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra. However, GM also relies heavily on its plants in Mexico and Canada for truck production. In fact, about half of its total pickup output comes from those two countries.
Read: Canada Hits Back At Trump With New Tariffs On American-Made Cars
To accommodate the increased output in Indiana, GM will briefly take the plant offline from April 22 to 25 to implement equipment and process changes. According to an unnamed source speaking with Reuters, the company plans to hire several hundred temporary workers to support the expansion.
In addition, the chairman of the local United Auto Workers union, Rich LeToruneau, added that between 225-250 additional full-time jobs will be added. GM is also adding daily and weekend overtime and ramping up the speed of the assembly line, allowing 9-10 vehicles to be produced per hour.
Still, GM hasn’t shared exactly how many additional trucks the Fort Wayne plant will turn out as a result of the tariff policy.
“General Motors will be making operational adjustments at Fort Wayne Assembly, including hiring temporary employees, to support current manufacturing and business needs,” the company said. “We continuously update and revise production schedules as part of our standard process of evaluating and aligning to manage vehicle inventory.”
Currently, the Fort Wayne facility employs 4,149 workers across three shifts, according to Reuters.
GM CEO Mary Barra has been thinking about boosting US production for quite some time. In January, she said that then-looming tariffs from the Trump administration could prompt it to increase US output of its trucks.
