[robk1982]

In a related story to the above-mentioned demo of the Delphi East plant:


New General Motors plant comes to Genesee County; SPO facility puts Delphi East employees back to work
by Melissa Burden | The Flint Journal
Monday March 31, 2008, 6:56 PM


BURTON, Michigan -- At least a few hundred people -- mostly workers from the nearby Delphi Flint East --are expected to be employed at a new General Motors Service and Parts Operations facility on Davison Road.

The SPO Davison Road Packaging Center, which will handle packaging work of SPO parts that previously was outsourced, began operations with some employees in March, said Pam Flores, a SPO spokeswoman.

"We anticipate we'll be fully operational in the second half of this year," she said.

UAW Vice President Cal Rapson said 250 laid-off Delphi Flint East workers have applied to work at the renovated SPO facility. He said about 33 employees are already there and others will filter in at a rate of about 45 per month.

The exact number of workers expected to be employed there remains uncertain.

New off-the-street hires aren't expected, at least not now.

The work stems from an agreement between GM, Delphi and the UAW to maintain work for employees of the downsized Delphi Flint East -- part of which is set to be demolished starting later this month.

"We forecast the manpower needed for this new facility will come from Delphi Flint East employees as a result of the UAW-Delphi-GM labor agreement that was ratified in the summer of 2007," said Dan Flores, a GM spokesman.

The new SPO work is in addition to the work on three new engines promised to the Flint area in GM-UAW contract.

The majority of workers at the new SPO facility will be brought in under the second-tier wage and benefit schedule approved under the UAW-GM contract last fall, with most workers earning about $14 an hour. Packaging center workers will be represented by UAW Local 651.

Local 651 President Art Reyes said the hiring at the new SPO facility is a significant development.

"We're starting to see the fruits of that agreement," Reyes said. "Any new work is a positive. We're glad to see that staring now."

New SPO employee Lisa Crannie, 37, of Burton said she was laid off from Delphi Flint East in October and began work at the new facility a few weeks ago.

Crannie, who had worked for Delphi about a year and a half, said she's happy to be working again.

"It's a new facility. I think it's a good opportunity for the area, hopefully a way to keep some of the work in Flint," she said.

Delphi workers who were with the company before it spunoff from General Motors in 1999 will retain their GM seniority, Dan Flores said. Those who joined Delphi after the spinoff will be treated as new GM hires with seniority starting on their hire date at the new facility, he said.

While the UAW and GM laud the work, it will have a ripple effect.

At least one local auto supplier, Landaal Packaging Systems in Burton, expects to lay off up to 60 workers because of SPO's insourcing.

Erich Merkle, vice president of forecasting for auto consulting firm IRN Inc. in Grand Rapids, said insourcing is tough on suppliers and their employees. He said suppliers within the past 10 years had been ramping up products and hiring workers for outsourced automaker work.

"The worker has really become more of like a hot potato," he said. "Nobody can really afford to keep folks on the payroll."

Merkle said he expects to see more auto supplier bankruptcies and closures due to automaker changes.

"You just can't keep doing this to the supply base," he said. "You're taking work away from the supply base at a time when they can't afford to lose the work because the volumes are declining and the economy is really slowing down."

The agreement between the UAW, Delphi and GM provided that a Flint-area presence would be maintained at Delphi Flint East, that new work -- via GM -- would be brought in as old work departs and after 2008, Delphi would have no responsibility for hourly employees at the Flint complex.

There are about 1,100 workers at Delphi Flint East, said Brad Jackson, a Delphi Corp. spokesman.

Rapson said there are almost 500 people doing instrument clusters in one building on Delphi Flint East. Those people are working for Delphi through the end of this year, then will work for either a third party that would supply GM or for GM itself, he said.

Journal staff writer Ron Fonger contributed to this report.