Published: Friday, August 11, 2006
With so many seeking buyouts, how will Packard staff plants?
Nearly all remaining Packard workers will be assigned to new jobs.
By DON SHILLING
WARREN — The number of Delphi Packard Electric workers signing up for buyouts exceeded the company's goal, raising the question of how it will staff local plants.
Packard had planned to trim nearly 2,800 jobs from local plants with buyouts, leaving an hourly staff of slightly more than 1,000.
Nearly 3,400 workers signed up for buyouts, however, potentially leaving just 400 people on the job.
"They will have a real problem," said Don Arbogast, a union leader. "I guess we'll have to negotiate a solution."
Nothing will be done before Wednesday, however, because that is the deadline for workers to change their minds and stay on the job. Arbogast, shop chairman of Local 717 of the International Union of Electrical Workers, said he expects some workers to rescind their decision but he doesn't know how many.
Ann Cornell Vickers, a Packard spokeswoman, would only say that union and company officials are discussing future staffing issues.
Temporary workers?
After a similar buyout plan with the United Auto Workers, Delphi Corp. brought in temporary workers to keep some plants operating. Temporary workers were paid $14 an hour, compared with $27 for top-scale production workers.
Arbogast said the IUE contract doesn't provide for temporary workers.
"I don't want to get into that because I don't know where the negotiations are going to go," Arbogast said.
Arbogast said he is talking nearly every day with local Packard officials on the implications of the company's attrition plan.
Almost everyone who remains with Packard will have new jobs, he said. Talks involve how workers will be reassigned and how they will be trained to ensure productivity and quality levels remain the same, he said.
The attrition plan is creating so much movement because nearly all of the workers at two key plants — plastic plants in Cortland and Vienna — have signed up to retire. The two plants were staffed with senior workers when they opened in recent years, Arbogast said.
The plan calls for new staffing arrangements to be set by Jan. 1, he said.
Most of Packard's hourly staff works at its North River Road complex, but company officials haven't described their plans for those operations. Arbogast referred questions about the complex to the company.
Besides the staffing issues, negotiators are trying to hammer out new national union contracts because Delphi has said it needs cost-cutting concessions in order to survive. General Motors Corp. also is involved because it used to be Delphi's parent company.
Bankruptcy hearing delayed
Delphi said a bankruptcy court hearing Friday in New York was postponed in order to provide more time for talks between all the parties. The hearing on Delphi's motion to cancel its union contracts is to resume Thursday.
Arbogast said, however, that he hasn't been told of any talks involving the IUE.
"They are not doing anything with us. Are they talking to GM or the UAW? I don't know," said Arbogast, who is a member of IUE's national negotiating team.
The IUE and UAW have said they will strike if the bankruptcy court cancels its contracts.
Cornell Vickers said Packard officials expect to avoid cutting its salaried ranks with buyouts. It will have a reduced salaried staff, however, because attrition has been higher than normal, she said.
Packard has about 1,200 salaried workers in the area, but Cornell Vickers didn't have the number who have left recently.
Meanwhile, Margaret Miller, the wife of Delphi Chairman Steve Miller, died Friday. She was 69 years old and had been ill briefly after being diagnosed in late May with a brain tumor, the Detroit Free Press said.
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