GM LORDSTOWN Plant to hire replacements as number of retirees mounts

THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN
The union is meeting with plant officials daily to push for more hiring.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
LORDSTOWN -- General Motors is hiring 24 people at the Lordstown Assembly Plant to replace the growing number of people retiring.
Jim Graham, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112, said the union meets daily with management to push for more hiring.
He did not want to talk about details of the talks, but a flier issued by union officials Thursday said they have been insisting GM hire people to meet requirements in the national contract. The contract calls for GM to replace one worker for every three that leave.
The flier said 20 workers were to be hired in February, but corporate officials placed the hiring on hold while they reviewed the plant's staffing.
"Management's foot dragging on these issues isn't helping the plant or the product," the flier said.
Concerned: Graham said the union is concerned about not having enough staff because summer vacations are coming. Besides permanent hires, the union also is seeking to have people hired temporarily to fill in for people on vacation, he said.
The plant has about 4,500 hourly workers. About 700 retired last year and about 90 so far this year, Graham said.
The plant hired about 350 people last year, Plant Manager Herman Maass said in January.
Maass, who is retiring soon, said GM has instructed all plants to reduce their total costs by 5 percent each year. With 90 percent of the plant's costs in personnel, reductions in staffing and overtime must be made, he said.
He said he expected hourly employment not to fall much below 4,000. The plant had 7,500 hourly workers in 1995.
Tom Mock, a plant spokesman, declined to comment.
Hiring pool: The plant is hiring workers from a pool of people that were nominated by current workers. Each worker was allowed to submit one person's name to the hiring pool.
A testing company will select randomly from the pool. Those people will have drug tests and physicals this week and next, the flier said.
These workers already have been through an employment test, which measures their team skills and math and other basic skills.
Plant and union officials are waiting for word from corporate officials about a new model to replace the Chevrolet Cavalier and Pontiac Sunfire. The plan calls for GM to build a new small car at the plant, which would undergo a $500 million renovation.