General Motors announced nearly $1.3 billion in equipment upgrades at five U.S. plants.

The good news for U.S. manufacturing continued today with the announcement that General Motors plans to invest nearly $1.3 billion in five U.S. plants creating or saving 1,000 jobs.

The announcement comes just days after cross-town rival Ford Motor Co. announced it would add 5,000 jobs in the U.S. in 2014, part of a global expansion program. Detroit-based automakers, collectively, have added tens of thousands of jobs since emerging from the most recent recession and a period during which they slashed employment and closed scores of plant.

“GM is committed to a strong American manufacturing base and creating jobs in dozens of communities throughout the country,” said GM Executive Vice President and North America President Mark Reuss in a statement.

“Today’s announced plant upgrades continue the momentum of a resurgent auto industry. More importantly, these investments add up to higher quality and more fuel-efficient vehicles for our customers.”

(For more on Ford’s hiring plan and other plans for 2014, Click Here.)

The investments come on the heels of the recent announcement by the U.S. Treasury that it had sold off the last of its shares in GM: taking a $10.5 billion loss. The government took an ownership stake in GM as part of its $49.5 billion bailout deal that allowed GM to file bankruptcy.

Since 2009, GM has announced investments of more than $10.1 billion in its U.S. operations — $2.8 billion in 2013 alone — creating or retaining more than 26,500 jobs. GM has received significant tax incentives to make new investments at its facilities.

(GM sells its stake in Peugeot. For more, Click Here.)

“Today’s announcement is a win for American workers,” said UAW Vice President Joe Ashton, who directs the union’s GM Department, in a statement.

“The UAW is proud to be a part of this successful collaboration with GM that has helped rebuild the nation’s economy, created good paying, union jobs in communities across the country, and brought manufacturing that was moved overseas back to the U.S. This is further proof that collective bargaining works.”

(Click Here to read about GM’s plans to close its Australian operations.)

GM’s nearly $1.3 billion investment includes:

• $600 million in Flint Assembly for facility upgrades, including a new paint shop
• $493.4 million in Romulus Powertrain Operations, which includes $343.4 million for equipment to produce an all-new 10-speed automatic transmission and $150 million to increase capacity of a previously announced new V6 engine
• $121 million in Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly for a logistics optimization center
• $30.6 million in Toledo Transmission Operations for increased capacity for an existing six-speed transmission and tooling for a new variant
• $29.2 million in Bedford Castings, which includes $22.6 million to produce components for the 10-speed transmission and $6.6 million to produce components for an existing six-speed transmission

The 10-speed automatic transmission will contribute to improved fuel economy and performance. Details about this program and the new V6 engine will be announced later.