Union leaders at GM Lordstown ponder contract issues

LORDSTOWN — Leaders from the international United Auto Workers union along with the local representation from UAW Local 1112 are meeting with General Motors officials to go over local contract negotiations.

“We have folks in town and we are going through a fact-finding mission to see if there’s an impasse,” said Glenn Johnson, president of UAW Local 1112, which represents the assembly plant workers here. “Both entities have people figuring out where we are.”

A strike has to be granted by the international union and “in order for them to grant we would have to exhaust all avenues within their means,” Johnson said.

The assembly plant workers, about 3,000, build the Chevrolet Cruze.

Last year, they approved the national contract with GM. Ninety percent of 1112 membership voted on the national agreement, with 72 percent approving the contract, which includes pay raises across the workforce, improved health care for tier-two workers and an $8,000 signing bonus.

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