Some Delphi Packard workers say contract stinks

Delphi has committed to spending
$50 million to upgrade its plants
in the Mahoning Valley.

By DON SHILLING

VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR

WARREN — Several Delphi Packard Electric workers interviewed Tuesday said they were upset with a proposed labor contract, but a union leader is pleading for time to explain the details.

“There’s a lot of misinformation and second-guessing going on,” said Mike O’Donnell, shop chairman for Local 717 of the International Union of Electrical Workers. “We’re trying to urge people to be calm.”

An informational meeting will be held when details of the tentative agreement, which was reached Sunday, can be assembled, he said.

Workers interviewed outside Packard’s North River Road complex seemed to have their mind made up, however.

“It’s a joke,” said Ron Bagaglia of Fowler, a tool and die maker.

He and others said they will vote to reject the contract because it looked to them like the United Auto Workers received better terms from Delphi.

O’Donnell said that wasn’t true.

IUE production workers would see their hourly pay cut from $27 to $16.50. News reports said the UAW contract, which has been ratified, provides pay up to $18.50.

Issue explained

A production worker with 14 years at Packard said the difference is unacceptable.

“That’s a lot less than what the UAW package has,” said the worker, who didn’t want to give his name.

O’Donnell said, however, that wages for UAW production workers have been cut to $16.23. The higher figure in news reports reflects four years of pay raises up to 3.75 percent a year, he added.

O’Donnell said those pay increases aren’t guaranteed, however, because they are based on national economic figures.

The IUE deal includes two 3 percent pay raises and two 3 percent bonuses.

In both agreements, workers would receive “buy-down” payments of $105,000 over three years. Buy-downs are compensation for pay cuts.

When those payments are included, workers will be making substantially more than they are now over the next three years, O’Donnell said.

“For a company in bankruptcy, that’s a good deal,” he said.

IUE skilled trades workers would be paid $26 an hour. They currently earn more than $30 an hour, with specific amounts depending on job classification.

Skilled trades

In addition to the pay cut, Bagaglia said he didn’t like that he would be making the same as other skilled trades workers. The current contract gives tool and die makers the most pay.

UAW skilled trades workers didn’t receive a pay cut. The IUE workers, however, would receive a $75,000 buy-down payment over three years. Again, O’Donnell said they would earn more than they are making now in the next three years.

Two temporary workers who were interviewed said they didn’t like the tentative agreement but weren’t sure how they would vote. Both said they had hoped for a larger pay raise.

Temporary workers are being paid $10 an hour without benefits.

The agreement would make them permanent employees but divide them into two categories.

One group would receive $11 an hour with full benefits, including health care. The other would receive $10.50 an hour, plus vacation, holiday and sick leave, but no health care.

Packard has just under 700 regular employees and about 300 temporary workers.

Wages aside, there’s much to like about the deal, O’Donnell said.

‘Major plus’

General Motors Corp. has agreed to buy product from Packard at current levels through 2011, including adding Packard-produced wiring components on several new vehicles. “That is a major plus,” O’Donnell said.

If GM outsources the wiring work to a supplier besides Delphi, that supplier would have to buy terminals, connectors and cable made at Packard plants in the Mahoning Valley.

GM is involved because it used to be the parent company of Delphi and has financial obligations to it.

In addition, Delphi has committed to investing $50 million in upgrading its Mahoning Valley plants.

Retirees and workers with a lot of seniority also stand to benefit from the agreement, O’Donnell said.

A guarantee that health care would be provided for retirees would expire when the current contract ends Oct. 17, and Delphi has said it would be providing coverage Jan. 1.

The agreement states that GM will cover those payments so that the health-care insurance can continue for seven more years.

“That’s a huge win at the bargaining table,” O’Donnell said. “If this agreement is not ratified, that coverage will not be there.”

GM also has agreed to extend pension benefits for Delphi workers who were with GM at the time of the spinoff in 1999.

Delphi has frozen pensions at their current levels, but GM has agreed to make payments that will allow those workers to accrue more benefits for up to seven years.

shilling@vindy.com