The joint venture between Holland's Johnson Controls Inc. and French manufacturer Saft is ramping up to produce lithium-ion batteries for electric and hybrid cars that are expected to generate 550 well-paying jobs by 2014.
The company is hiring now for its engineering team and expects to bring on board the first skeleton team of production workers by the end of this year.
According to excerpts from the story:
“Everywhere I go, somebody says, ’I need to talk to you,’” plant manager Elizabeth Rolinski said last week in her first Press interview on the project.
The battery operation will start small. By the end of the year, the five-member staff at the Meadowbrook plant at 36 W. 48th St. will grow to 25. But eventually, it will have 300 workers, with another 250 at other local JCI facilities producing parts for the operation.
That means a lot in a region where manufacturing has been hit hard by layoffs in both the automotive and office furniture industries. Ottawa County’s most recent jobless rate was 12.8 percent.
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