GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — Hiring is quietly continuing at Gaston County’s Freightliner plants in Gastonia and Mount Holly.
Scott McAllister is president of the UAW chapter at Gastonia’s parts plant. He says 11 more people began working there Monday.
The week before last saw similar numbers.
“It seems like every other week for the last couple of weeks, they’re bringing in a new class of 10 or 11,” he said.
The kicker: McAllister says he’s hearing the company has 1,000 or more applications to sort through as it looks for new workers.
“That tells you something about the state of the unemployment,” he said. “Hopefully, we can give them some work.”
It’s been two months since parent company Daimler Trucks North America said it would add 100 jobs to the Gastonia factory and nine months since the 700 positions announced for both the parts and truck plants here.
At the time, hundreds of job hunters flooded The Gazette and the United Auto Workers office in Dallas with calls and questions.
And while initial excitement has died down, online recruitment efforts by Daimler Trucks have remained steady for jobs nationwide, including in Gaston County.
Scott McAllister is president of the UAW chapter at Gastonia’s parts plant. His advice to anyone who calls looking for a position there: Go online.
The Daimler Trucks North America website is the best resource, according to the local UAW president.
At www.Daimler-TrucksNorthAmerica.com, job seekers can click on a “careers” link and choose the job search option. That takes them to a page where they can sort employment based on location.
Gastonia’s parts plant had only one position, a supervisory job, listed on Wednesday. The Mount Holly truck plant boasted three, an assembler, a supervisor and an engineer.
Don’t let the paltry looking lists disappoint, McAllister says. He notices the company adding jobs regularly.
“I would suggest checking once or twice a week at least,” McAllister said.
He adds that one position listed on the website could mean a number of openings with that same title.
Twitter is another online resource for folks with hankering to work at Freightliner. And updates come in real time, so potential employees could get the first word there.
Job postings come from Daimler Trucks North America, which uses the Twitter handle @DaimlerTrucksNA.
The last Gastonia job listing on Twitter came across Tuesday afternoon. Mount Holly job postings went up Friday, Sunday and Tuesday.