Packard given go ahead to scrap 12-hour shifts

By Don Shilling

Three local Packard plants will likely switch over to traditional 40-hour weeks.

WARREN — Delphi Packard Electric won the right to change the scheduling at three of its plants, which would reduce the annual pay of workers by $9,000 to $13,000 each.

About 420 workers stand to lose the premium pay they receive for working 12-hour shifts for three days straight, followed by three days off.

Packard uses this schedule at plastic molding plants in Cortland and Vienna and at a cable-making operation in its North River Road complex. It is called continuous run because four shifts are used to keep the plants running all day, seven days a week.

The ruling allows Packard to install a traditional 40-hour week at the plants. Three shifts would allow the plants to run for five days a week.

The matter was sent to an arbitrator because Local 717 of the International Union of Electrical Workers held that the change couldn’t be made without its approval. The arbitrator approved the change after reviewing local and national labor contracts.

David Olsen, a Packard spokesman, said the company wanted the ability to reduce production at the plants because demand for its products has fallen. Consumers are buying fewer cars, and especially trucks and sport-utility vehicles, so Packard doesn’t need to supply as many components for those vehicles.

Olsen said he didn’t know when the schedule change would be enacted. Mike O’Donnell, Local 717 shop chairman, said he expects to learn more in a few days.

O’Donnell said he understood that production volumes at the local plants has fallen. He was hoping Packard would bring in work from other areas in order to keep the three plants running continuously.

Packard also has factories in Mississippi and Mexico to serve North American auto plants.

Packard sought the continuous run scheduling in 1995, saying it was better to keep expensive machinery running all day in order to boost productivity. Workers voted to accept the change in a contract vote.

Packard’s desire to abandon the scheduling surprised O’Donnell because it wasn’t brought up in recent contract negotiations. Union and company officials negotiated a new local contract from March 2006 to August 2007. One month after the contract was signed, Packard asked for the scheduling change, O’Donnell said.

He said more layoffs of local workers are possible because of the low production volumes. Packard laid off 15 workers in both December and April because of a slowdown in orders from General Motors, its biggest customer. Packard has about 925 hourly workers in the area.

shilling@vindy.com