2021 was a rough year for a lot of industries, but one of the hardest hit was the car industry. There was a global shortage of new cars due to the semiconductor supply shortage, leaving dealerships bare and assemblies with unfinished cars. They are finally beginning to recover and heading towards a path of progress after a year-long battle.
General Motors Arlington is one of the vehicle assembly plants that was affected by the shortage. GM is the company that builds Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles. The Arlington location is best known for being the only GM plant to make the full-size SUVs like the Chevrolet Tahoe and Cadillac Escalade.
GM reached out to us recently to inform us that they are hitting the ground running in 2022 or should I say driving. Over the last few months, GM Arlington has hosted 20 of the top Cadillac dealership leaders across the nation to tour the plant and see the process of assembly for the vehicles they will later sell.
They also have been laying the groundwork for more inclusivity within their company. Their employees have always been very diverse, but they are really utilizing the employee resource groups that they have put into place. With the help of these employee resource groups, GM has been able to partner with local schools, as well as allowing them to give back to the community. These are just a few of their 2021 contributions:
1. Inspiring Students:
The Arlington GM Latino Network employee resource group partnered with the Great Minds in STEM to bring the Virtual Viva Technology to the students at Cristo Rey Fort Worth College Prep. During this partnership, volunteers shared with the students what they love about their profession to motivate future STEM leaders.
This partnership was to teach students about STEM concepts so that they may decide to pursue degrees and/or careers within STEM.
2. YES to STEM:
The Arlington GM African Ancestry Network employee resource group awarded a STEM scholarship of $1,200 to Brooklynn Richards, a senior at James Martin High School in Arlington.
The Arlington Assembly Community Grant also sponsored the YES Summit, in which they helped to provide funding for students to attend. The YES Summit is a teen-focused conference that offers a variety of STEM-focused, college prep, and self-development workshops for students in grades 6-12.
3. Career Day:
GM’s Interior Quality Engineer, Scott Ostenfeld, was invited to the Cora Spencer School in Mansfield to present for Career Day. Ostenfeld spoke to 150 students about his journey to becoming Interior Quality Engineer, GM Arlington’s plant history and the vision for the future of GM.
4. CARE packages for service members:
The GM Arlington Veterans employee resource group has been assembling CARE packages for service members. So far, they have passed out 30 CARE packages to Texas National Guard troops and 106 with non-perishable food items to overseas service members in five different countries across three ships.
GM’s future vision for the company is going to be amazing as they ramp up for a future that is zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion!
General Motors Arlington has created quite the vision and I, for one, cannot wait to see this vision become a reality.