LANSING, MI—Michigan has won a nearly $2.5 million federal grant to increase access to apprenticeship programs in skilled trades fields. Part of the federal government’s ApprenticeshipUSA program, the grant will be used to boost the number of apprenticeships by 5 percent by May 2018, with about 1,000 new participants.
OSHAWA, ON—Up to 100 people will be hired early next year at General Motors’ assembly plant here, thanks to a boost in Chevy Equinox production and the new four-year tentative contract reached last month. MORE
NEW TAIPEI CITY, Taiwan—In 2011, Foxconn announced a plan to replace 500,000 mainland Chinese workers with 1 million robots over the next three to five years. So far, the electronics manufacturing services provider has installed 40,000 robots across China. MORE
CENTREVILLE, AL—German automotive supplier MollerTech will invest $46.3 million to build a state-of-the-art assembly plant here. The factory, which will make interior parts for Mercedes-Benz SUVs, is expected to employ 222 people. MORE
DETROIT—Fiat Chrysler says an employee at its Jefferson North Assembly Plant here has been diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease. Although health officials has not determined where the employee may have come in contact with bacteria that cause the disease, the automaker is testing water sources at the plant “out of an abundance of caution.” MORE
SPRING HILL, TN—General Motors plans to add 650 jobs at its assembly plant here. The company will be adding a third shift, which is expected to begin in January 2017. Staffing details are still being finalized, but the company will begin filling the positions this quarter.
HOLLAND, MI—Coastal Automotive LLC plans to hire 110 workers for a recently acquired $6.5 million manufacturing facility here. The company makes high-tech foam-based products that improve safety and block sound vibration in cars.
TORONTO—Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ Canadian workers on Sunday voted in favor of a new four-year contract with the automaker that includes $12,000 in bonuses over the next four years and includes a commitment from the automaker to revamp the paint shop at the company’s assembly plant in Brampton, ON.
EDGERTON, KS—Aerospace supplier Triumph Group has opened a new assembly plant here. The 156,000-square-foot factory will produce a variety of components, including landing gear, seat and cargo tracks, floor beams, thrust reverser beams, stringer end fittings, wing attach fittings, installation brackets, hinge arm assemblies and engine inlet assemblies.