'Now hiring' sign draws thousands to Ga. parts plant (3000 applicants for 600 $10/hr. jobs)

[DainBramaged]

More than 3,000 people stood in line for hours outside a Georgia workforce training office this week to apply for $10-an-hour jobs at Korean auto-parts supplier Sewon America.

That's more than five times the roughly 600 positions that Sewon expects to fill eventually at its new factory under construction in LaGrange. Sewon will make stamped chassis and body parts for Kia Motor Corp.'s factory in nearby West Point when it opens in November.

Sean McMillan, a director with workforce training agency Georgia Quick Start, said he arrived at 6:30 a.m. Monday to find 200 people standing in line. One woman had driven from Ohio the night before and slept in her car, says McMillan, who called the experience "sobering."

"Many of these people, particularly locally, have watched Kia's facility being built, and with that there's been a lot of anticipation. As times have become tougher, I think the hope -- and that's a word you don't hear a lot lately -- has grown," he said.

Sewon's three-day hiring blitz was a bright spot in a week dominated by news of job cuts at Nissan Motor Co., General Motors and supplier BorgWarner Inc. But with all the excitement in LaGrange, there was also a dose of reality.

Sewon is hiring in waves. It will take on 300 workers this year in several groupings, and the rest later.

Indeed, of the 3,050 people who submitted applications, McMillan said he expects 80 to 100 to make it to the next round for the first wave: pre-employment training that starts next week. From that group, Sewon will probably offer jobs to 25 or 30, he said. Others will have to wait for the next hiring wave later in the year.

Those odds led the LaGrange Daily News to observe that "'American Idol' auditions might be easier than landing a position at the new Sewon America plant."

http://www.autonews.com/article/20090212/ANA02/902120287/1128 (subscription only)

[jody]

1. Perhaps GM & Chrysler might learn a lesson and produce a low cost, fuel efficient car in the South.

[DainBramaged]

2. Perhaps we should stop giving breaks to the Transplants and support our own

We gave billions to Mercedes Benz, Hyundai, Toyota and Honda. Oh by the way, GM does produce very fuel efficient cars, I'm sorry you didn't care to do any research.

[HughBeaumont]

3. My GM product, assembled in Lansing, is nearing it's 250,000th mile.

My discontinued 1997 Cavalier has 241156 miles.

SAME engine.

SAME clutch.

Very little difference in driving quality from it's first year and only minimal difference in mileage. There's a few rust spots, but that's to be expected in Ohio and I don't really care at this point.

Don't know about anyone else, but not having a car payment to make and minimal general maintenance costs suits me just fine.

Of course, I drive a stick, as I'll continue to do.

Doesn't the Cavalier's successor, the Cobalt, get better mileage than a Corolla? Don't remember where I read that . . .

[DainBramaged]

5. Yes, it does, 37 MPG highway in the SFE version

My 95 Cavalier has 216000 miles on it. I JUST put the second set of front pads on it and cut the rotors for the first time. Last TANK OF GAS WAS 26.3 mpg COMBINED. have spent less than $300 in the past year on my car. They are tanks. But of course those who support the GOP Southern cabal don't care that the Japanese make some of the worst gas guzzlers made.

[MineralMan]

4. That's right. Tell those people to wait for their jobs

until GM builds its parts plant there in Georgia. I'm sure they'll agree with you that we shouldn't support a Kia parts plant by working for it.

Oh...wait...GM has no plans to build a plant there. Never mind.

[JackDragna]

6. Ten dollars a bloody hour.

That's a wage for a fast food manager, not someone trying to earn a decent living or feed their family. What horrible things we have wrought here in America in destroying our middle class.

[DainBramaged]

7. Some folks think we should build a car for $10 an hour

I guess they never got off their ass and worked a day on an assembly line.

[Obamanaut]

9. I know people who are earning $10/hr, and feeding their families nt

[JackDragna]

10. That's still no livable wage for a lot of people..

..and considering the right wants everyone to make that much, even if they're technically skilled or a professional, is a crime.

[Mike 03]

8. Remarkable and sad. And the irony is, who could live on that amount anyway? I couldn't.

This story speaks volumes.

Kick and Rec.