White-collar worker number to be reduced
Salaried workers will receive the company's regular severance, not a buyout.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
Delphi Corp. is evaluating its number of salaried workers and expects reductions over the next several months.
Rochelle Valdez, a company spokeswoman, said the white-collar workers who aren't needed will not receive buyout and early-retirement incentives as union workers did. Instead, they will receive the company's normal severance pay, which is based on years of service.
Company executives are studying where to make cuts, and those actions will be taken in the coming months, Valdez said.
She noted that Delphi said last March that it planned to cut its salaried staff in North America by 8,500, or 25 percent.
Delphi Packard Electric, a Delphi division based in Warren, had about 1,200 salaried workers at the time.
A union official said he expects Packard to tremendously reduce its white-collar staff.
Here's the situation
Mike O'Donnell, shop chairman of Local 717 of the International Union of Electrical Workers, said fewer salaried workers are needed because large parts of Packard's manufacturing plants are vacant or soon will be as the company shifts work to other countries.
He said he's been hearing that Packard will be making cuts in salaried jobs soon.
The union's membership was trimmed last year from 3,000 to 659.
Delphi offered union workers with 30 or more years of service a 35,000 payment and the ability to retire with a pension and health care. Younger workers left the company with payments of either 70,000 or 140,000.