New models, fewer jobs

Employment has fallen at Lordstown after recent
models were introduced.

By DON SHILLING

VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR

DETROIT — More than 1,000 jobs are expected to be cut from the car complex in Lordstown after General Motors places new models there, an analyst said.

The biggest cuts are coming at the fabricating complex, said Sean McAlinden, vice president of research for the Center of Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.

He expects staffing to be cut from 1,000 to about 300 at the fabricating plant, which makes metal parts for the adjacent assembly plant and other assembly plants.

Job cuts will come as GM increases the efficiency of the fabricating plant with new equipment and stops stamping parts for assembly plants in other areas, McAlinden said Saturday at a seminar for journalists in Detroit. McAlinden said automakers are moving toward having fabricating plants tied to only one assembly complex.

The Lordstown assembly plant won’t escape the drive for efficiency, he said. McAlinden expects hourly employment at the assembly plant to fall from 2,400 to somewhere between 1,800 and 2,000.

Dave Green, president of United Auto Workers Local 1714 at the fabricating plant, declined to comment on McAlinden’s expectations. Ben Strickland, shop chairman of UAW Local 1112 at the assembly plant, could not be reached to comment.

Changes are expected at the car complex starting in the summer of 2009. Production of the Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 is to stop, and GM will start production on a new small car. GM plans to begin making a new midsize model at the plant the next year.

GM hasn’t disclosed any details on the models or staffing levels, but employment has fallen at Lordstown after recent models were introduced.

For example, in 2003, before the Cobalt was introduced, the assembly plant employed 4,000 hourly workers and the fabricating plant had 1,800.

Staffing at the Lordstown complex was subsequently cut by 1,600 in 2006 the last time GM offered buyouts and early retirement incentives.

Before final plans can be made, the Lordstown plants must negotiate new local labor contracts. Local labor contracts cover plant-specific issues such as work rules and job classifications.

Local 1112 officials recently told members that contract talks will resume once UAW officials from Detroit visit the plant later this month. The UAW officials are going to each plant to explain which jobs will fall into a new lower-paying second-tier that has been created. These are jobs that are not directly tied to the assembly line.

McAlinden said another key part of the local contract talks will be GM’s desire to cut its number of skilled trades workers, who earn more than production workers.

GM wants about 8 percent of its workers to be skilled trades workers, compared with about 25 percent now. He estimated that the skilled trades workers make up about 18 percent to 20 percent of workers at the Lordstown assembly plant.

Some of the reduction will come because the new national labor contract eliminates building maintenance workers from skilled trades classifications, he said. These workers handle work such as cement repairs or roofing, he said. They will be replaced with second-tier workers.

McAlinden added that some of the skilled trades reductions will come as workers retire.

He said he expects that workers whose jobs are eliminated at the fabricating plant will be able to transfer to the assembly plant if they don’t retire.

Job openings are expected at the assembly plant because GM is expected to again reduce staffing with buyouts and early retirement packages. McAlinden said no Lordstown workers should be laid off.

As new models come to Lordstown, the plant is expected to be making more environmentally friendly cars. Brett Smith, assistant director for the Center for Automotive Research, said automakers will be making hybrid and diesel models for almost all new car lines that are being introduced. The exception would be models such as the Chevrolet Volt, which is being designed as a plug-in electric.

Smith said the new models coming to Lordstown would be designed for hybrid and diesel options but availability of those models would depend on market demand.

McAlinden and Smith were two of the speakers at “What Drives Detroit,” a seminar put on by the Foundation for American Communications.

shilling@vindy.com