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Idled GM workers face relocation dilemma
By GRACE WYLER
lordstown
As General Motors continues to fill the third shift at its plant here, laid-off workers from other plants across the country are being asked to relocate to Lordstown or risk losing their benefits.
Workers from GM’s idle plants in Janesville, Wis.; Pontiac, Mich.; Spring Hill, Tenn.; and Mansfield, Ohio, have been asked to relocate to the GM Lordstown complex to fill the plant’s third shift, said Kimberly Carpenter, a GM spokeswoman.
If those workers decide not to take the job in Lordstown, they will lose their unemployment and health benefits, she said.
Carpenter would not specify how many workers will receive relocation letters. GM will continue to send them until the positions are filled, she said.
About 1,200 additional workers will be needed for Lordstown’s third shift, which will start next month in preparation for the July launch of the Chevrolet Cruze.
In Janesville, about 120 workers received relocation letters at the end of last week, said John Dohner, president of United Auto Workers Local 95, which represents the GM plant in Janesville. The plant, which manufactured sport-utility vehicles, was idled in December 2008.
The deadlines to make their decisions are this week, Dohner said. Many of the workers would have to report to the Lordstown plant by the end of the month.
“We were surprised,” Dohner said. “We knew this was a possibility; we just didn’t know it would happen so soon.”
The Janesville workers are faced with a difficult choice, Dohner added. Many of those who received letters are in their 40s and have children and families in Janesville, he said.
But most of the workers cannot afford to lose their benefits, Dohner said. He thinks that most of the workers who are not eligible for early retirement will take the jobs in Lordstown.
“This is the first time we’ve ever been faced with this,” Dohner said. “You either go or you don’t go, and if you don’t go, you’re done with General Motors.”
The process of filling the third shift at Lordstown is dictated by the GM’s labor contract with the UAW, which was renegotiated in 2007, Carpenter said.
Under the new contract provisions, workers who do not apply to transfer do not have the right to refuse a relocation offer. If they decline, they are taken off the company’s national hiring list and are no longer entitled to benefits.
These workers will be recalled only in the event their home plant reopens, Carpenter said. “This is something that we negotiated with the union, and it provides us with a little more flexibility,” she added.
GM first recalled workers who were laid off from the Lordstown, Parma and Pittsburgh plants, she said. The company then hired volunteers from the national hire list who had applied to transfer to Lordstown.
After the list of volunteer transfers was exhausted, the company began recalling other laid-off workers, Carpenter said.
UAW Local 1112, which represents workers in the Lordstown assembly plant, expects to have about 340 transfer workers, said President Jim Graham.
The fabrication plant, represented by UAW Local 1714, expects about 114 transfers, said President Dave Green.
“Most of the people I have spoken to that are coming put in for it,” Green said. “But if they don’t get enough people that want to transfer, they’ll find another group who may be laid off and say they need to come here. They only offer one opportunity.”