General Motors Announces Expansion at KCK Fairfax Plant

[Excerpted from the Associated Press]

General Motors Co., CEO Ed Whitacre, announced a $136 million reinvestment in the company’s Kansas City, Kansas Fairfax Assembly Plant to build the next generation of the popular midsize Chevrolet Malibu. He said GM would expand production at Fairfax and would establish the plant as the Malibu's main production facility.

The factory investments will preserve jobs for the 3,869 workers currently employed at Fairfax, which also builds the midsize Buick LaCrosse luxury sedan.

During the financial crisis that led to GM filing for bankruptcy protection last year, the automaker closed 14 factories and shed more than 65,000 blue-collar jobs in the U.S. through buyouts, early retirement offers and layoffs. The company now employs about 40,000 hourly workers in the U.S.