Auto supplier Lear Corp. said it will increase production and add 285 jobs this year at its northwest Indiana seat-manufacturing plant.
The company will spend more than $2.2 million at the plant, which will make seats for the new Ford Explorer SUV. Lear said it will hire production workers and some technical and administrative positions.
“This is good for middle America, especially since so many jobs were lost,” Lear spokesman Mel Stephens said March 4.
Production of the new Explorer will begin in the fourth quarter at Ford Motor Co.'s Chicago assembly plant. The Lear factory in Hammond, Ind., has supplied parts to the Chicago plant since the mid-1990s.
There are about 140 workers at the Lear plant. Former employees — at least 100 laid-off workers — will have an opportunity to get a job at the plant. After that, Stephens said, Southfield-based Lear will take applications.
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