GM Confirms Plans for New Engine Plant

General Motors Corp., fulfilling a pledge made late last year, confirmed plans to build a new engine plant in Flint, Mich., that will employ about 700 workers. In November, the nation’s leading auto maker said the Buick City Assembly Center would close in late 1999. It tried to soften the blow by pledging to build a new engine plant in the Flint area. Construction on the new plant is expected to begin later this month. It will replace the Flint V-8 Engine Plant, which Detroit-based GM expects to close by 2000. The engine plant and the Buick City Assembly Center have more than 6,000 hourly and salaried employees. The announcement comes three weeks after GM settled two strikes at plants in Flint that virtually shut down the company’s North American production lines.