Saturday, July 26, 2008
By Don Shilling
GM has trained 700 new hires, 400 transfers and 300 temporary workers.
LORDSTOWN — The final group of new General Motors workers finished training Friday as the company’s Lordstown complex gears up for the addition of a third shift Aug. 3.
About 185 workers completed their weeklong training Friday, making nearly 1,400 people who have gone through the procedure in the past six weeks.
About 700 of the trainees have been new hires. About 400 are transfers from Delphi Corp. and other GM plants, and 300 are temporary workers.
As for new hires, GM draws its candidates from a referral list that is developed by current employees. A plant newsletter said a new referral list is being drawn up in case employees are hired in the future. Each employee is allowed to recommend one person.
A new labor contract at GM provides pay of about $14 an hour for new hires who aren’t working jobs that are directly on the assembly line, such as material handling. That’s about half the pay for longtime production workers.
Of the 400 transfers, about 310 are coming from Delphi Packard Electric’s local plants. The rest are being transferred to this area from other GM plants.
These workers will receive the top rate provided in the United Auto Workers’ contract.
The remaining new workers are being considered temporary help for now, said Chris Lee, a GM spokesman. Plant officials will determine if these workers are needed permanently once they have time to judge how much production is needed, he said.
GM typically uses temporary workers in its plants in the summer to fill in for vacationing workers. The hourly pay for temporary workers has been cut from $18 to $14.
GM is adding workers to the complex as it prepares to boost production of the Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5. Sales of the models have been up as more buyers look to smaller, fuel-efficient cars.
The complex now has 3,500 hourly workers. GM is to launch its new compact car, the Chevrolet Cruze, from Lordstown in 2010.
shilling@vindy.com