Auto workers get pact details

By LARRY RINGLER Tribune Chronicle
LORDSTOWN — Jon Schofield said he went to an informational meeting Tuesday ready to vote against a tentative agreement for 1,000 United Auto Workers members at the General Motors Corp. Lordstown West Metal Center.

Despite some misgivings, the Mineral Ridge resident left the meeting at the Local 1714 union hall ready to vote for the contract when balloting begins at 5 a.m. Thursday and runs until 1:30 a.m. Friday.

‘‘I changed my mind after listening to (shop chairman) Will Adams,’’ said Schofield, 59, who has 31 years with GM. ‘‘They did the best they could. They saved core and noncore jobs, and got extra jobs.’’

Bob Frisk of Mercer, Pa., said he didn’t like the prospect of losing money through a change in determining overtime but added he hopes the contract pays off for younger workers.

‘‘I’ll probably vote for it because I think they need the jobs. I hope they get the product, and they do well,’’ said Frisk, a skilled trades diemaker who plans to retire by July 1 after 38 years.

One of the younger workers said the contract appears ‘‘decent. It sounds like they’ll add a bunch of subassembly jobs in the next couple of years’’ as the factory takes over assembly of the entire body of the Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 small cars the complex makes.

‘‘It seems like it will win us some work for job security,’’ said the worker, who declined to give his name but who said he lives in Boardman and has nine years at the factory as a production employee.

The Metal Center currently makes the cars’ underbody, but under the new pact will assemble the entire frame, including side panels, hoods, trunk lids and roof.

Local 1714 President Dave Green acknowledged different concerns by skilled trades workers — pipefitters, diemakers and others — from their production co-workers, especially how some of the skilled jobs will be combined as workers retire.

As painters retire, for instance, their work will be absorbed by other skilled trades workers such as millwrights, who will have the right to paint a die, Green said.

GM ultimately would like to get the skilled trades work force, which earns more than the production staff, to a ratio of one to every 10 production workers, Green said. He added the metal plant, which has 378 skilled trades workers and 622 production employees, can’t function at that ratio.

‘‘I don’t know what the ratio could be, but our process isn’t set up for that,’’ he said.

One key issue — which jobs will be considered core and noncore — that stretched out local negotiations to an unusually long 15 months was ironed out by International UAW leaders and won’t affect the plant until current workers retire or leave under attrition incentive packages.

lringler@tribune-chronicle.com

The tentative agreement is the first of two local pacts the complex needs to nail down new cars to build in the next few years. Closing in on a contract is UAW Local 1112 at the next-door East assembly plant, where 2,400 workers build the cars.



lringler@tribune-chronicle.com