Business
Obama to talk promote jobs, discuss energy in North Carolina
Obama won North Carolina by 14,000 votes in 2008, the slimmest margin of all the states he carried. He was the first Democrat since Jimmy Carter to carry the state. The Democratic National Convention is being held in Charlotte in early September.
Growing demand has prompted Freightliner, a division of Germany’s Daimler Trucks North America, to hire more workers to build trucks. Last year, the company said it would bring back 447 manufacturing jobs and 27 administrative positions in Mount Holly.
Freightliner announced in February it would hire 1,100 more workers at its Rowan County factory in Cleveland, and an additional 100 at a nearby Gastonia parts plant.
At one time, the Freightliner plant in Cleveland employed nearly 4,000 workers, said Corey Hill, president of United Auto Workers Local 3520. Now it has about 1,600, but more hires are expected.
Unemployment in Gaston and Rowan counties, where the plants are located, has been higher than the state average of 9.9 percent in December, the last month when figures were available.
Some Freightliner workers make US$24 an hour with benefits.
Obama told business leaders Tuesday that the nation needs to reform its tax system to help boost the economy, saying the American people “instinctually understand” that the U.S. needs a more balanced approach to solve its economic problems.
“The economy is getting stronger and the recovery is speeding up. The question now is how do we make sure it keeps going,” Obama said to the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of top U.S. corporations.
Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press.
