GM ADDING ANOTHER SHIFT TO BUILD MORE SOLSTICES!

BY MICHAEL ELLIS
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Good news for the lines of people waiting to buy the Pontiac Solstice roadster. General Motors Corp. said on Wednesday that it will add a third shift of workers next year to the Wilmington, Del., plant that builds the Solstice in order to boost output of the hot-selling car and build two additional roadsters.

During its first three months on the market, GM has sold 1,488 of the two-seat convertibles in the United States. But GM has received more than 15,000 orders for the car.

"By adding the third shift in January, we will increase the flow of Solstices to help fill the thousands of orders we have already received," said John Larson, general manager of Buick-Pontiac-GMC.

GM expects to add 550 hourly jobs to the plant, drawing mostly from the ranks of auto workers laid-off when GM discontinued production of the poor-selling Saturn L Series sedan in June last year, spokesman Dan Flores said. If needed, GM can also hire other laid-off GM workers from the area, including those in the jobs bank from the closure of its assembly plant in Baltimore.
Wilmington currently employs 1,200 hourly workers and 150 salaried employees.