The strike between the UAW and General Motors might be over, but a new battle is waging at an important GM plant that could pull in laid off workers at GM's Detroit Hamtramck.
Late Friday night, GM began letting go about 240 temporary workers at its Fort Wayne Assembly plant in Roanoke, Indiana, said GM and UAW sources. GM builds its hot-selling light-duty Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups there.
The terminations followed a failed push by the local UAW 2209 leaders to get GM to convert some of those temporary workers to permanent full-time status. GM said it was willing to keep them on as part-time temps, but the temps are not eligible to be converted yet per terms of the new national UAW contract.
When negotiations broke down with the local union, GM opted to terminate the temp workers.
"We had some conditions where they had to hire some of these people, but they refused to hire them," said Rich LeTourneau, chairman of Local 2209. "We have 178 people retiring by March 1 and GM has no plan to fill those jobs. They rejected our offer to fill them with conversions of temps."
In a letter to membership, LeTourneau said GM told him if "we can't come to a temp agreement, they will be forced to hire transfers on layoff from Hamtramck."
While LeTourneau said he welcomes transfers, they will cost GM considerably more in wages, benefits and possible moving costs than converting temps to permanent status will cost GM.
But GM said it converted nearly 150 temps to full-time regular status last Monday. In other words, hired them permanently.
It offered to convert 52 more who did not yet meet the terms of GM's obligation under the UAW contract as a "goodwill gesture," but the local union wanted more temps made permanent immediately, two people familiar with the situation said. Those 52 are now part of the 240 being released because of the failed negotiation.
"We believe these temps that have kicked ass for this plant over multiple years deserve to be hired, obviously the company doesn't," said LeTourneau in the letter to members Saturday. "It's obviously not about money now or it would be a no brainer. It's all about their egos now, and it's not what's right for the business or the membership."
No deal
GM is ramping up pickup production at the plant after a six-week work stoppage late last fall.
On Sept. 16, some 48,000 UAW workers went on strike at all of GM's facilities in 10 states. The plight of temporary workers was a top issue driving the strike. The UAW ratified a new four-year contract Oct. 26.
In that deal, GM is required to convert temps to full-time regular employees when the temp has three years of continuous service.
Last Monday, at 30 of its 52 UAW-represented facilities in the United States, GM made about 930 temporary workers with 3 years of continuous service permanent full-time employees. At Fort Wayne Assembly, that included 148 temps. There are more conversions to come in the months ahead, GM said.
More: Hundreds of GM temp workers were just made permanent
"We are excited to welcome these team members as full-time team members at our Fort Wayne Assembly Plant," said GM spokesman David Barnas in an email to the Free Press.
He said GM expects to add more temporaries there as full-time team members in the future. Additionally, GM was willing to retain the 240 additional temporaries as part time temporary employees, he said, "but unfortunately we could not reach an agreement with the UAW. We appreciate the hard work of our employees and their contributions to GM. We certainly wish them well in their future endeavors.”
The temporary workers leaving the plant have worked there from eight months to two years, LeTourneau told the Free Press. Their temporary letter expires Monday and most have left over the weekend, he said.
GM has some "big decisions to make in the next 48 hours," LeTourneau said in his membership letter. "If they do nothing at all, they will run the risk of topping the charts on unscheduled overtime."
He said that will cost GM $35 million to $45 million this year.
The goodwill gesture
In a statement emailed to the Free Press, UAW spokesman Brian Rothenberg said, "GM has been unable to reach an agreement on allocation. However, any decision to proceed with layoffs," he said, has been generated "by General Motors."
Local 2209's LeTourneau said he expects GM to return to the bargaining table to sort out the fate of the remaining temps at Fort Wayne. He said with 178 full-time regulars retiring, it would be more cost efficient for GM to convert the existing temps at Fort Wayne to permanent full-time to fill the spots rather than transfer permanent workers to Fort Wayne.
He said a temp who is made permanent will earn $24 an hour, up from about $17 as a temp. A full-time permanent transferred employee probably already is paid $32 an hour. Also, GM might have to pay an extra $30,000 to relocate them if the person needs to move, LeTourneau said.
"But I'm happy to have either one, transfers or conversions. I'm just saying conversions are more cost effective for GM," said LeTourneau.
In terms of GM's stance that it offered to keep the 240 temps on as part-time temps, "Our position is, if you're going to keep them, hire them," said LeTourneau. "They're struggling to run the plant without them."
A person familiar with the situation, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said the local union is demanding "that a significantly larger number of temporary employees" be converted than the contract requires.
As a "goodwill gesture," GM offered to hire an additional 52 employees, greater than its contractual obligation, said this person.
That said, "GM has the obligation to run the business in a responsible manner" and would not convert any additional temps to permanent, the person said. GM will convert more temps per the conditions of the union contract going forward, said the person.
Temps still on the job
LeTourneau said there are 236 long-term temps still employed in the plant, which has about 4,200 regular full-time hourly workers. About 56 of the long-term temps have at least three years of temp work experience at Fort Wayne. Therefore, said LeTourneau, GM should be make them permanent full-time employees.
The person familiar with the situation said the 56 employees do not have three years of continuous service as full-time temps, per the national agreement, therefore they do not qualify yet for a conversion.
Fort Wayne is an important plant for GM because its pickup production is critical to GM's revenues. Last May, GM CEO Mary Barra went to Fort Wayne Assembly to announce the company would invest $24 million on assembly line technology to speed up pickup production.
In fact, when the strike ended, GM said it wanted to restart production of pickups as soon as possible. Fort Wayne and Flint Assembly, where GM builds the heavy-duty pickups, have both been running on overtime since Oct. 26.
Contact Jamie L. LaReau at 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter.
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GM and the UAW at odds over temps at key plant; 240 let go - Detroit Free Press
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