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Chrysler to hire 1,250 more workers in Indiana

Chrysler

Chrysler says it will add up to 1,250 new jobs in Kokomo, Indiana as it begins to produce a new fuel-efficient nine-speed transmission.

That brings the number of new jobs created since the company emerged from bankruptcy to more than 8,000.

The Detroit-based automaker will invest $375 million in its four transmission and casting plants in Kokomo, Indiana.

Chrysler is already building an eight-speed transmission at the Indiana facilities and it will add a nine-speed transmission next year.

Those transmissions are a big part of Chrysler's strategy to make its vehicles more fuel-efficient.

The company says Kokomo will be the largest transmission operation in the world once the new jobs are added.

All of the new jobs will be so-called tier 2 - paying the lower starting wage for newly hired workers.

The entry-level pay rate has made the Detroit Three's labor costs much closer to those at companies like Toyota.

 

Tracy Samilton covers energy and transportation, including the auto industry and the business response to climate change for Michigan Public. She began her career at Michigan Public as an intern, where she was promptly “bitten by the radio bug,” and never recovered.