LORDSTOWN — There have been more than 175 ex-General Motors Lordstown Assembly plant workers OK’d, so far, to transfer to work at electric-vehicle battery-cell manufacturer Ultium Cells, according to the automaker.

GM, however, is not saying from which plants the employees are coming.

“We’re not going to get into that level of specificity,” GM spokesman Kevin Kelly said in an email.

GM did, though, at least once release transfer numbers with the factory destinations for the former Lordstown workers who sought a transfer out after GM announced in late 2018 the plant was closing the next year.

The first wave of transfers is scheduled to begin orientation for their new jobs June 17, according to Josh Ayers, bargaining chairman for United Auto Workers Local 1112

Eligible employees can apply to transfer back through mid-September.

“Transfers will be approved based on seniority as future openings become available,” Kelly said in the email.

There are about 800 former Lordstown employees eligible to apply for a transfer to work at Ultium Cells, Ayers has said.

The ability for displaced Lordstown employees to transfer back was won in national contract negotiations between the UAW union and GM. The contract, approved by UAW members in November, provides a six-month window for those working at the plant on Nov. 26, 2016, to apply to work at the battery factory. That started in March, “so the total number of who may be interested is unknown,” Ayers said in an email Thursday.

The six-month window closes Sept. 13. Those who return keep their current wages, benefits and seniority.

According to a letter from GM to employees, transfer eligibility will be determined on the 15th of each month for the following month’s job openings, and selected employees who transfer to Ultium Cells will do so as GM leased employees.

Also, the letter states eligible employees who transfer outside the Ultium Cells area will be eligible for a relocation allowance, but those who transfer are ineligible to transfer back to any UAW-GM facility “unless the employee is on indefinite layoff” from Ultium Cells.

The first job openings were posted April 15.

Around Easter holiday weekend, the former Lordstown employees were able to tour Ultium Cells. About 130 participated, Ayers said.

The open house, he said, was “worthwhile for those interested in coming back home because the work at Ultium Cells is atypical to an assembly or stamping plant. There were some who toured the facility and immediately removed themselves from the placement list after the tour.”

Ultium Cells is a joint venture between GM and South Korea’s LG Energy Solutions to mass produce battery cells to provide capacity to support the Detroit automaker’s EV assembly in North America.

The facility in Lordstown was the first to launch production toward the end of 2022. At last count, the plant employed approximately 2,000 people.

Have an interesting story? Email Business Editor Ron Selak Jr. at rselak@tribtoday.com.