GM LORDSTOWN Union, company to sign plans to remodel plant

Union and company officials are beginning to plan how to replace a large number of retirees.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
LORDSTOWN -- Final engineering plans for the Lordstown Assembly Plant include keeping 200 jobs that previously were going to outside suppliers and raise the possibility of a shortage of workers next year.
Union and company officials were to sign the plans for the remodeling of the plant today, said John Mohan, shop chairman of United Auto Workers Local 1112.
Mohan said a shortage of workers could arise because 2,200 workers, just more than half the work force, will be eligible to retire next year. A large number of retirements could leave the plant without enough workers until the plant upgrade is completed in late 2004.
The remodeled plant will need fewer workers than the plant has, but the question would be how to staff the plant while current models are built, Mohan said.
Unsure of shortage
Tom Mock, a plant spokesman, said it's too early to say how a shortage would be handled and added that it is not certain there will be a shortage.
Mohan said union officials are pleased the company has agreed to keep motor and wheel work inside the plant.
Last year, two Michigan companies set up shop in the area in anticipation of receiving this work. Android Industries moved into an industrial building in Vienna, where it planned to prepare engines that would be installed in cars in Lordstown. Mohan said Android will not do that work but will continue supplying the plant with suspension parts.
Oakley Industries built a new plant near the assembly plant to prepare tires for the Lordstown cars. Mohan said Oakley will not use that plant.
Still uncertain is who will build the instrument panel section of the new car models, called the cockpit.
Mohan said the union and company are going through a bidding process on that work, which includes 120 jobs. The company proposed sending the work to an outside supplier, while the union developed a counter proposal to keep the work inside the plant.
Mock said he couldn't comment about such issues because they hadn't been resolved. He said union and company officials were meeting on the engineering plans today.
The first construction work in the $500 million remodeling plan will be in the body shop, Mohan said. Some preliminary demolition work already has started.
New body shop equipment will be added for the new models, and the body shop will be extended because the current models of the Chevrolet Cavaliers and Pontiac Sunfires will continue to be built.
Mohan said he expects the body shop equipment will be removed once the upgrade is completed.
More details
The plan developed by union and plant officials, however, calls for keeping some machinery elsewhere in the plant, while adding new equipment where needed.
Keeping as much equipment as possible was a key part of persuading GM to remodel the plant and keep car production in Lordstown, Mohan said. Building a new plant with all new machinery would have cost about $1.7 billion, he said.
The only work to be done outside the plant will be a new paint shop, which will extend from the west end of the plant to Bailey Road, he said. The three-story building will take up part of the parking lot at the adjacent fabrication plant.
Construction will start next February or March, although some site preparation work will start sooner, Mohan said.
An important part of the paint shop will be a new system for the application of primer paint, which also protects against rust. Mohan said the current system allows the plant to build only a small car, but the new system will be able to handle other types of vehicles, enabling the plant to build more than just small cars.