Holden creates more jobs in South Australia

GM HOLDEN is recruiting 100 new employees at its Elizabeth plant in South Australia as it ramps up production for the new locally built Cruze small car and the US-bound Chevrolet Caprice Police Pursuit Vehicle (PPV).

This comes on the heels of the 165 new jobs created at Elizabeth last November, when the company reinstated its second shift as the factory prepared for the additional models and met increased demand for its Commodore range as the economy recovered from the global financial crisis.

The one-shift regime was introduced at the height of the GFC in April 2009, when Holden’s parent company General Motors was in dire financial straits and local sales were falling sharply. Holden’s exports to the US and Middle East also collapsed.

Workers were put on reduced shifts, with arrangements ranging from one week on/one week off to one week off in 12, all on reduced pay.

Hard at work on the Elizabeth production line.

The strategy was designed to keep Holden’s manufacturing workforce intact until conditions recovered, which they now have.

The new jobs, involving 12-month contracts, will take the Elizabeth workforce to 2400.

Cruze production starts this month, with the sedan the first variant to roll off the refurbished production line that once produced the Vectra – Holden’s most recent four-cylinder locally made car.

The locally designed Cruze hatch will follow later in the year, with a wagon also on the cards.

Chevrolet Caprice PPV production has already begun at Elizabeth as US law enforcement agencies negotiate tenders for fresh fleets.

Shipments of the vehicle – in plain ‘detective’ guise and ‘black and white’ patrol versions – are expected to arrive in North American in April and hit the streets by June. V8 and V6 models are planned.

Holden chairman and managing director Mike Devereux said in December that one of his most pleasing moments in his few months at Holden had been seeing the ‘open’ sign on the employment office at the Elizabeth plant after the reinstatement of the second shift in November.