GM will take transfers from Delphi Packard

By Don Shilling

Transfers will eliminate the need to lay off more workers, a union official says.

WARREN — General Motors is taking at least 118 workers from local Delphi Packard Electric plants.

The Lordstown assembly plant will take 94 of those workers. The rest are going to various GM plants around the country.

The transfers should eliminate Packard’s plans to lay off workers for the third time in seven months, said Mike O’Donnell, shop chairman of Local 717 of the International Union of Electrical Workers. He said he expected up to 100 people to be laid off soon because of declining production volumes.

He also said the transfers should allow for some workers who were laid off in April to be called back.

The transfers are being made under a labor agreement reached last year by GM, Delphi and their unions. Delphi used to be a part of GM, and the automaker has been helping to fund Delphi’s reorganization in bankruptcy court.

GM has room for the transfers because 19,000 — about a quarter of its work force — are leaving the company by July 1 with buyout benefits.

O’Donnell said GM offered transfers to 122 Packard workers, but some decided to stay. Workers had until March 12 to apply.

The number of workers being transferred could increase. Eight Packard workers have been offered transfers to the Lordstown fabrication plant and an assembly plant in Pontiac, Mich. Those workers have until today to decide whether to accept.

Other Packard workers could be extended transfers to other plants later, O’Donnell said.

He said workers who transfer will be paid at the full GM pay rate and not the second-tier rate approved under a new labor deal last year. They also will receive full GM pension benefits.

O’Donnell said the transfers of Packard workers will help local plants with staffing concerns. Since February, Packard has placed varying amounts of workers on temporary layoff almost every week.

O’Donnell said production volumes are down because of lower sales of trucks and sport-utility vehicles produced by GM, which is Packard’s biggest customer. Packard’s local plants produce components that are used in electrical systems.

O’Donnell said he expects the temporary layoffs to stop once the transfers are made.

The transfers leave Local 717 with about 850 members, including the 30 people who were laid off in April and December. Before Delphi filed for bankruptcy in 2005, it had 3,800 hourly workers in the area.

shilling@vindy.com