GM Lordstown strike vote ends this morning

The UAW is open to two-tier wage agreements, a trade publication said.

By DON SHILLING

VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR

LORDSTOWN — A strike authorization vote at the General Motors plant here comes as a news report indicates local bargaining has slowed.

Workers were deciding whether to give union leaders the authority to call a strike if talks become stalemated. Voting was to end this morning.

While the vote is routine, Automotive News said in a story last week that union leaders in Lordstown and Kansas City, Kan., are reluctant to accept GM’s proposals to bring in outside contracts to handle janitorial, forklift and subassembly work.

Jim Graham, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112, declined to comment, but a flier issued by union leaders last week said there were many open issues in the talks.

Listed as sticking points were overworked jobs, team leader classifications, vacation approvals and overtime agreements.

Union leaders said the most important issue was to put the plant in the position to receive a new product. Production of the Chevrolet Cobalt at the plant is scheduled to end in 2009.

Two contracts

GM has both national and local labor contracts. The national agreement covers wages and benefits, while the local contract covers job classifications and other plant-specific issues.

Both the national agreement and Lordstown’s local contract expire in September.

As happens in each round of negotiations, union locals around the country have been authorizing local union leaders to call a strike.

In the last round, Lordstown workers approved a new contract that combined job classifications and changed work rules to allow the plant to operate more efficiently. In return, GM invested $1 billion in Lordstown, which is the largest single-line auto plant in the world.

In the current talks, Automotive News reported that UAW officials in Detroit are allowing GM assembly plants in Spring Hill, Tenn., and Lansing, Mich., to negotiate two-tier wage systems. Nonproduction workers would be paid roughly half as much as production workers.

In return, the UAW would organize nonunion suppliers that handle parts sequencing, building maintenance and nonproduction tasks, the trade publication said.

Union sources reported that UAW officials around the country are considering such arrangements.

shilling@vindy.com