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GM to bring back last of 2,000 laid-off workers

DETROIT — The United Auto Workers union says General Motors Co. plans to recall the last 2,000 of its laid-off workers by this fall, clearing the way for new hiring at its U.S. plants.

DETROIT — The United Auto Workers union says General Motors Co. plans to recall the last 2,000 of its laid-off workers by this fall, clearing the way for new hiring at its U.S. plants.

The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press report that word about the jobs came Wednesday at a union meeting in Detroit that set goals for bargaining a new labour contract with automakers later this year.

Joe Ashton, UAW vice-president in charge of GM, says the union expects “full employment in September for the first time in a long time.”

GM spokeswoman Kimberly Carpenter tells The News that GM’s remaining laid-off workers are concentrated in southeastern Michigan. She declined to say where and when hiring would take place.

The recalls do not apply to the 50 Canadian production workers who remain on layoff at the company’s plant in St. Catharines, Ont., said GM Canada spokesman Tony LaRocca.

Workers at the other two Canadian GM plants, in Ingersoll, Ont., and Oshawa, Ont., have been fully recalled as of last year.

The remaining Canadian workers on lay off are expected to be back to work by the end of 2013, after the company starts up planned production at a new engine and transmission facility in St. Catharines.