GM, Delphi changes keep job training center busy

A spokesman said workers taking buyouts probably won't qualify for unemployment.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
BAZETTA -- The Trumbull County One Stop job training facility has mobilized to assist workers being displaced by the loss of the third shift at the Lordstown Assembly Plant and is prepared to offer the same help to workers at Delphi Packard who will lose their jobs.
At a meeting Wednesday of the Trumbull County commissioners at the county fairgrounds, Bill Turner, One Stop administrator, said a three-county Rapid Response team has met with 178 employees so far.
They include 102 members of United Auto Workers Local 1112 and 1714, 24 employees from Lear Seating, 47 from Intier Automotive and five from Comprehensive Logistics. All of those are being affected by the elimination of the third shift, Turner said.
As for the 2,800 Delphi Packard workers whom the company said it wants to eliminate through buyouts and retirements, Turner said his agency will wait until the company files its Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification before attempting to meet with affected workers.
Delphi, which is trying to reorganize and emerge from bankruptcy protection next year, has offered workers between $35,000 and $140,000 to either leave the company or retire. They have until Aug. 9 to decide.
Retraining available
Turner said one of the services that will be available to workers is retraining under the Workforce Investment Act. In Trumbull County, the W.I.A. provides $7,500 worth of job retraining for workers.
The One Stop facility, located on West Market Street in downtown Warren, has contracts with a number of educational facilities that provide job retraining. At Wednesday's meeting, for instance, the commissioners approved contracts with Kent State University Trumbull Campus, Trumbull Career and Technical Center, Youngstown State University and Transport Tech for such training.
Dennis Evans, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, which oversees unemployment compensation, said workers taking the buyouts would probably not receive any unemployment compensation.
Evans said any amount the workers would receive in a lump sum payout would be deducted from any amount they would be entitled to get from unemployment. Unemployment compensation usually lasts 26 weeks and is based on half of one's weekly wage up to a maximum amount, Evans said.