So far, 130 GM employees take buyout offer as meetings go on

The midnight shift at the fab plant will keep one-third of its workers.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
LORDSTOWN -- About 130 workers at General Motors' Lordstown complex have decided to leave the company with a buyout, union officials said.
Meetings with workers continue as they consider whether to accept payments that range from $35,000 to $140,000, depending on service time.
At the fabricating plant, 68 workers have signed up to take the buyout as of Tuesday, said Jim Kaster, president of United Auto Workers Local 1714.
About 200 members of Local 1714 still are scheduled to meet with union representatives to learn more about the buyout program, he said.
Kaster said he didn't have a breakdown of who is taking the buyout but thinks most of them are workers who have at least 30 years of service. These workers are to receive a $35,000 payment and keep their retirement and health care benefits.
Kaster said he thinks enough buyouts will be taken to create positions for all fabricating plant workers who will be displaced when the plant's midnight shift is cut back.
Midnight shift workers
Only 325 of the plant's 1,483 workers are on the midnight shift. More workers -- 700 -- are on the first shift because more production is done on that shift and more skilled trades workers are needed then, Kaster said.
When the shifts are adjusted, the fabricating plant still will have about 110 workers on the midnight shift, he said. GM officials told the union that workers will be needed in two areas to keep production running ahead of the adjacent assembly plant, he said.
The fabricating plant makes the underbodies and metal parts for the Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac models produced at the assembly plant.
With the workers still needed on the midnight shift, just over 200 workers will be displaced. Any workers that aren't absorbed into the other two shifts would either be laid off or placed in a jobs bank. Laid-off workers receive 85 percent of their pay in state and supplemental benefits, while workers in the jobs bank receive full pay.
If enough workers take the buyout, the fabricating plant may be able to take back some of the 140 workers who transferred to the assembly plant a year and a half ago, Kaster said.
Assembly plant
At the assembly plant, close to 70 workers have accepted the buyout, said Jim Graham, president of UAW Local 1112. More than 800 workers still are scheduled for meetings on the plan, he said.
The assembly plant, which has 3,800 workers, has about 1,100 on the midnight shift. Graham said the plant is expected to have maintenance workers remain on the midnight shift, but the company hasn't said how many.
The union leaders said the two-shift arrangement will begin June 19 after a one-week shutdown.
No date set
Dan Flores, a GM spokesman, said the start date for the new shifts hasn't been set. A one-week shutdown will be needed because of the changes that are being made to the line speed in the assembly plant, he said.
Kaster said the plant will begin making the Pontiac G5, a sister car of the Cobalt, that same week.
The plant also will hold a previously announced shutdown the week of April 24 because the supply of Cobalts at dealers is too high, he said.
shilling@vindy.com