Kia's New Plant in Georgia

More "import" expansion to meet increasing sales, by building locally. They could have probably bought the Ford Taurus plant for cheap!

From Business Week:

News & Features October 25, 2006, 3:1PM EST text size: TT > Kia's New Plant > Kia breaks ground on a new $1 billion plant in Georgia expected to open in > late 2009 with an annual capacity of 300,000 vehicles > > For several hours last Friday, the population of West Point, Georgia swelled > ­ albeit temporarily ­ by over 500 people who had come for the official > ceremonial groundbreaking of Kia¹s $1 billion factory.
Reply to
who
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Why would they buy Ford's plant? They want something that is modern.

Reply to
Jeff

the plant is probably too worn out from selling more sedans that anyone else.

Reply to
petebert

Interestingly this is crossposted into 3 groups where it isn't on topic but not posted into alt.autos.kia where it would be on topic.

-- Christian

Reply to
CMM

Does anyone look there? It does indicate who's growing and manufacturing locally.

Reply to
Some O

Note that they picked Georgia, as do all the invaders, because of traditionally lax labor laws in southern states, as well as a cowed workforce and the lowest wages in the country. Environmental and safety standards are also ignored in most southern states.

Reply to
DeserTBoB

if they can supply good paying entry level jobs I'm sure the locals are more than happy. I've lived in non factory states before and barely got by with entry level jobs with just a H.S. diploma. Now I live in Ohio and found out that you actually support your family by being willing to work and getting a job at an auto plant.

Reply to
petebert

Bob, maybe you should move to Georgia and build a factory. Then you could pay the locals $30 an hour.

Reply to
Robbie and Laura Reynolds

Tax incentives to I bet.

Reply to
Some O

Noone is preventing anyone from organizing and negotiating better salaries and work terms. The modern plants generally provide far better working conditions than most of the older plants in traditional manufacturing areas. As far as wages, I wouldn't be too concerned with that since a dollar in most parts of this area will buy what a $1.25-$1.50 will buy in many of the older manufacturing areas. Over time, that will change, and so will the location of the plants in an effort to follow the more financially rewarding areas in which to manufacture. If wages and labor were the only concerns, the manufacturer would, undoubtedly, have built somewhere else. And, if you think environmental and safety standards are ignored in the south any more than any other part of the USA, then you are way behind the times and have NO IDEA what goes on here. If the ideas you harbor were true, the south would not have so much growth caused by immigration from other parts of the USA, Canada and Mexico. If you don't think you are paying enough for goods and services when you get here, we have a policy of accepting TIPS for the difference.

There are big time tax incentives for Kia - hundreds of millions of dollars. It amounts to tens of thousands of dollars per job every year over the first ten years. Beyond that, noone knows Almost every big manufacturer expects tax incentives these days on significant facilities including large retail stores. It is like a bidding war among the various states and even local taxing authorities including those in every part of the USA. It is just like a sales incentive used by anyone in business to bring in new business. I would assume that even countries are in on the game to try to entice job providors into their jurisdictions. For the information of those who can't see beyond their own back yards tax incentives have been provided by many states both north of the Mason-Dixon and west of the Mississippi. I won't judge the longterm viability of the tax incentives but, it is my gut feeling that they are a mistake since I have seen too many cases where the manufacturer blackmailed them for extensions when the original agreements ran out in order to remain in the facilities. They almost always get their way or many people will lose their jobs. This is a fact of life all over the country.

Lugnut

Reply to
lugnut

Yes let's legislate better working conditions and higher pay to drive the jobs overseas so you can blame the same people for that too. We know the liberal tactics - complain and blame no matter what is or is not done.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

On some days it seems.

Good point.

-- Christian

Reply to
CMM

the auto plants here in ohio pay pretty damn good for low educated entry level jobs, dont quote me but from what I hear, entry level out of high school your starting at around $17/hr. If thats the case with these Kia plants I dont think anyone needs to lobby for higher wages. I was talking with a guy at work about it before I knew how well auto plants paid. Well we looked up the avg. income for Dayton, it was around $27k a year, pretty much what I expected. Then he put in some little towns around Ohio that I had never heard of and they where showing a $50k avg income. I was thinking ok, how the hell do these little farm towns have such a high avg, well they all had different Honda plants. This guys dad happens to work for Ford and gets paid quite well to do almost nothing because of the unions.

Reply to
petebert

Hey, Putz-ney! I took you off kill file (along with Nudo) just to watch both of your fizz and fume and fart after losing Congress. I know, in your deluded world, you'd pay no overtime, no pensions, no benefits, and everything would be for the bosses, right?

Ain't gonna happen.

Your buddy Nudo is in the middle of a psychotic meltdown over the election. Glad to see you're doing much better.

Now, back in you go! *PLONK*

Reply to
DeserTBoB

Wrong. But you're still going to complain no matter what anybody does. - you failed to address the issue of driving corporations off-shore by your politics and then blaming someone else for your unintended but obvious (to sane people) consequences.

Hah! What a gracious winner, and a coward. Hit and run.

No - life goes on with the party of Aunt Jemima caricatures of Condoleeza Rice in charge to some extent.

I'm smiling, man - don't know about you. Your source of self-worth, sufficency, and joy is obviously different than mine.

And yeah - I know you are reading this anyway.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

Above average wages in the auto related plants here in GA has been pretty much the rule. By the time you add in the benefits package, it looks pretty damn good - maybe even better than a goo governmant job. Ford and GM are both closing their plants here because of their own economic problems from failure to keep tabs on what the customers wanted. The separation packages for the employees make me wish I was being terminated by one of them. That way, I could go back to school full time without worrying about missing the pay check. I'm 59 but, always wanted a different degree and a new career just to keep life interesting.

Lugnut

Reply to
lugnut

And this stuff has exactly what(?) to do with the automotive newsgroups that it's cross posted to? You two guys need to get a room.

Reply to
Mike Marlow

Homie don't play dat.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

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