Spring Hill is celebrating today. The UAW has now outlined its contract agreement with GM, which includes a commitment to build two midsize cars at the former Saturn plant. Some 1,700 jobs will be restored after a long two years for some workers.
For a short time, Spring Hill Mayor Michael Dinwiddie worked at the GM plant.
In a show of solidarity and because he needed a full-time job himself, Michael Dinwiddie – the mayor of Spring Hill – began working at the GM plant in 2009. Then production of the Chevy Traverse moved to Michigan.
DINWIDDIE: “I was out of a job just like everyone else in that plant, so I had to start looking around.”
Dinwiddie is still in the hunt for a full-time position, but he says there are about to be lots of prospects. When an automaker adds one job on an assembly line, economic development officials figure six other positions are created by suppliers.
DINWIDDIE: “That means when you get 1,700 new people here, you’ve got another 10,000 jobs that are about to be created for the local community, so that is probably even more exciting just to know what’s coming on the horizon.”
MOTIL: “This is a wonderful man…”
David Motil, laid off by GM in 2009, has started teaching cooking lessons to make ends meet.
Outside the UAW union hall in Spring Hill, David Motil gives Dinwiddie a bear hug. Motil was also one of the 2,000 laid off. To make ends meet, he started a little side project.
MOTIL: “You wanna come see it? Come on.”
In the union hall’s kitchen, a woman grinds salt and pepper over a colorful vegetable dish. Motil has been teaching cooking classes here. Hundreds of others were forced to take temp jobs at GM plants around the country.
MOTIL: “I created this business so I could ride it out. But a lot of people who couldn’t do that had to go to different locations, leaving their families here. I know dozens of them like that. And they pray for the day they can come back, and hopefully that day is very soon.”
For Motil, that day could be as soon as next year, when the smaller of the two vehicle lines is expected to begin production.
UAW members still must ratify the contract with GM, and union leaders voted in Detroit this week to recommend they do.
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