According to persistent reports from family and friends of employees at Freightliner in Cleveland, employees are invited to apply for three-year stints at the new plant in Monterrey. Incentives include free housing, free private school for the children of workers while they live in Monterrey and free rental cars.

Monterrey is an ‘‘Americanized’’ city where some people say more Americans than Mexicans live.

An American income in the Mexican economy would mean an especially comfortable life, workers say. One possible downside to the move is that after their tour in the Mexican plant, workers would not necessarily return to North Carolina but could be sent to one of Freightliner’s other plants.

In the meantime, some local workers, including those who speak Spanish, have been traveling back and forth between Monterrey and North Carolina to train workers and troubleshoot in the new plant.

Although Freightliner employees say the program is ‘‘common knowledge’’ and they haven’t been told not to talk about it, none is willing to be quoted by name.

From the company’s headquarters in Portland, Ore., Freightliner President Jim Hebe spoke in an earlier interview via speakerphone about planned employee bonuses and increases in Freightliner wage structure. At the end of the interview, a Post reporter asked if it was true the company has a program using Hispanic workers to start a new plant in Mexico. ‘‘Yes,’’ Hebe said.

He said he was not able to discuss specifics of the program but would have his director of public affairs, Debi Nicholson, who was with him during the interview, put the reporter in touch with people who could explain the program.

Since then, Nicholson has failed to return more than a dozen telephone calls from the Post. On Thursday, the woman who answers the telephone in Nicholson’s office said, ‘‘She has your messages’’ and suggested further calls would not be productive.

The Monterrey plant is Freightliner’s second plant in Mexico. The plant in Santiago Tianguistenco has been manufacturing trucks since 1991.

In 1998 Freightliner announced the Santiago Tianguistenco plant would double its daily production of Freightliner Class 8 over-the-highway trucks for export to the U.S. market.

The Santiago Tianguistenco plant was already producing Freightliner heavy- and medium-duty trucks, Mercedes-Benz trucks and buses for the Mexican market, in addition to Mercedes-Benz E- and C-class cars.

A written statement quoted Hebe, who was joined by Mexico President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, in announcing the creation of 600 new jobs and an investment by the parent company, Daimler-Benz, of $9 million in the plant. (The company later became DaimlerChrysler.)

Even with U.S. plants operating around the clock, Hebe said his company would still need additional production capacity to fill customer orders.

His statement said trucking is ‘‘viewed internationally, not nationally,’’ and to support customers, ‘‘our job is to provide the same products, technology, services and support consistently across the NAFTA region.’’