Gov. Mike Pence announced today that Subaru of Indiana Automotive plans to invest $140.2 million at its Lafayette plant to expand its annual production by nearly 100,000 vehicles annually. The expansion is expected to create 1,200 new jobs by 2017 with an average hourly wage of $17.
The Lafayette plant is Subaru's only plant outside of Japan. The plant currently employs 3,800 and produces 300,000 cars annually. The Indiana Economic Development Corporate will aware Subaru $7,650,000 in conditional tax credits and up to $250,000 in training grants.
Contrast that news with Mitsubishi's announcement earlier this summer that it would shutter the doors of its Normal, Illinois plant, putting nearly 1,300 auto workers out of a job. Illinois state and local officials lured that automotive plant in 1989 by offering nearly $250 million in taxpayer subsidies. Union workers at Mitsubishi's plant earn between $24 and $28 an hour, considerably more than Subaru's workers even after the union agreed to wage cuts several years ago in an effort to entice the company not to close the plant.
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According to an article in the Chicago Tribune July 24th, 2015, "Mitsubishi would be the first major Japanese automaker to end production in both the U.S. and Europe. The company has built a plant in Thailand, bought one from Ford in the Philippines and is building one in Indonesia." The car maker is ending production in the U.S. to focus on Asian markets, said a Japanese business newspaper, the Nikkei.
This story about Subaru fits nicely with the story about the Simon Down Town Mall, we have subsidies for large corporations but the worker bees have to sacrifice.
The same Subaru Lafayette also manufactures Camrys for
Toyota (those that aren't assembled in Georgetwon, Ky).
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