GM will add 400 jobs to its Corvette plant to prepare for a new model

General Motors Co. is adding 400 workers, some of whom will transfer from plants that are at risk of shutting down, to its Chevrolet Corvette factory in Kentucky that’s preparing to produce the next-generation sports version of its iconic sports car.

The largest U.S. automaker will reveal the Corvette on July 18, according to a statement Thursday. GM will be making the jobs available to existing employees, including those from plants that the company has said won’t be allocated new product, according to Pat Morrissey, a spokesman.

GM has been taking political heat from the likes of President Trump and Democratic candidates challenging him, including former Vice President Joe Biden, over plans to stop production at four U.S. plants by early next year. GM’s Chevrolet Cruze factory in Lordstown, Ohio, which is about 500 miles from the Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Ky., stopped operating in March.

All 3,000 workers who will be displaced from their current jobs at plants in Michigan and Ohio due to the restructuring will be offered transfers to other GM plants, Morrissey said. The Corvette plant probably will be able to fill all 400 jobs with transferring workers, he said.

UAW Vice President Terry Dittes, who has publicly criticized GM for not adding new products to Lordstown and three other plants, commended the automaker for adding work at the Corvette plant.

“We hope to see more of this in the future from GM, which is good for our members, their families, the community, and all of America,” Dittes said.

The new Corvette will be the eighth generation of the famed sports car, which was first introduced in 1953.