Delphi Packard still needs electricians

WARREN — Delphi Packard Electric still is short of electricians nearly two years after cutting its work force with generous buyouts.

The Warren-based unit of Delphi Corp. has been placing ads that seek journeyman electricians at $20 an hour, growing to $22 an hour over time.

The pay isn’t high enough to entice workers who can make more elsewhere, said Mike O’Donnell, shop chairman of Local 717 of the International Union of Electrical Workers.

The job paid $33 an hour before Delphi persuaded the union to take pay and benefit cuts in a new labor contract last year. Michigan-based Delphi has been operating under bankruptcy court protection since 2005 and continues to lose money.

Electricians who had been with Packard saw their pay cut to $26 an hour with the new contract. They are receiving a $75,000 payment over three years in exchange for the pay cut.

Read more in Thursday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com