DELPHI PACKARD 400 accept retirement incentive

Talks on a new labor contract are under way.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
WARREN -- About 400 hourly workers at Delphi Packard Electric Systems have accepted a $15,000 incentive to retire.
The company's labor contract included a window that required workers to retire by Oct. 1 to receive the payment. Workers had one week to change their minds.
Doug Hoy, a Packard spokesman, said the retirements reduce the company's hourly work force to about 4,200. Packard had 8,600 hourly workers in 1985.
In recent years, Packard has been offering the incentives to encourage workers to retire as work at its Mahoning Valley plants becomes less labor intensive.
Assembling of vehicle wiring harnesses, which used to be done locally, now is done in Mexico. Local plants make plastic and metal parts, cable and censors for electronic and electrical systems.
Packard offered another retirement incentive ended Jan. 1, 2003, and about 100 workers accepted the offer, Hoy said.
Officials at Local 717 of the International Union of Electrical Workers, which represents Packard's local hourly workers, could not be reached to comment.
The retirement incentives were part of a local labor contract agreement. Hoy said officials from the company and Local 717 have started bargaining on changes to the contract.
Negotiations
The agreement is considered a "living agreement." It doesn't have an expiration date, but negotiations on revisions are timed with negotiations on a new national labor contract.
The IUE and Delphi Corp., the Michigan-based parent company of Packard, started bargaining on the national contract in August. The current contract expires Nov. 14.
Hourly workers at Delphi, which is the world's largest automotive parts supplier, are represented by either the IUE or United Auto Workers. The UAW recently reached new national contracts with Delphi, General Motors and other domestic automakers.
Delphi announced last week that it was looking to cut about 500 salaried jobs, or about 3 percent of its salaried work force, in the United States. It is offering an undisclosed financial package through the end of the year for workers who leave voluntarily
Delphi isn't disclosing staffing targets about its operating companies or plants. Packard has about 1,400 salaried workers in the Mahoning Valley.
shilling@vindy.com