OTTAWA, OH—Whirlpool’s freezer assembly plant here is an example of having an opportunity and making the most of it. The appliance manufacturer bought the factory in 2009 after its previous owner, W.C. Wood, shut it down and laid off the workforce.

HORICON, WI—Deere & Co. has begun construction of a $35 million project to add 300,000 square feet to its assembly plant here, which makes riding mowers and other products. The expansion is expected to create 50 to 75 jobs.

BUFFALO, NY—SolarCity has pledged to hire another 1,500 workers in the next decade at its solar panel manufacturing plant under construction here. That would be on top of the 3,000 the company hopes to hire when the plant begins production.

DETROIT — General Motors and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year labor deal Sunday, only minutes before a midnight strike deadline.

WINDSOR, ON—Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is hiring line production workers for its assembly plant here, where the company’s flagship minivan is built.

ANN ARBOR, MI—Robot orders and shipments in North America set new records in the first nine months of 2015, according to Robotic Industries Association. A total of 22,427 robots valued at $1.3 billion were ordered from North American companies in the first nine months of 2015, an increase of 6 percent in units and 9 percent in dollars over the same period in 2014.

PALMDALE, CA—The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman an $80 billion contract to build the new Long Range Strike Bomber.

DETROIT—General Motors plans to hire more than 1,200 hourly and salary workers as part of a second shift the company is adding at its Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant.

DETROIT—Nearly three weeks after workers soundly rejected a tentative agreement, voting at several Fiat Chrysler plants showed strong support Wednesday for a new contract that would enable entry-level hires to gain wage parity with veteran employees.

PRETORIA, South Africa—BMW’s assembly plant here is getting some of its power from cow manure. The company has agreed to a 10-year deal to buy as much as 4.4 megawatts of electricity from a biogas power station about 80 kilometers from the assembly plant. Surrounded by land where approximately 30,000 cattle graze, the power station runs off gas emitted by a fetid mixture of dung and organic waste.