4LT GS Roadster
Willie Gould, 23, examines a GMC Acadia in the Trim Department of the General Motors Corp. plant in
Delta Township. Gould worked for nearly a year as a temporary worker and was made permanent with
the passage of the new contract between GM and the UAW.
LANSING -- A window in Doug Rademacher's office at UAW Local 602 overlooks acres of rubble and twisted steel where General Motors Corp.'s massive Fisher Body plant once stood.
The local president peers out the dusty panes and reminisces about the days when children played in the factory parking lot and workers spent their lunch breaks in neighborhood haunts.
In many ways the toppled factory -- replaced by a sprawling, robot-filled complex in a nearby suburb -- is emblematic of changes taking hold on the factory floor.
Long-held tenets of union life are about to become relics of the past for the domestic auto industry under new pattern-setting labor pacts with the United Auto Workers and Detroit's Big Three.
Two-tier wages, buyouts to clear out veteran workers, deals to bring in thousands of new hires -- the transformations will create a different world on the factory floor.
"Making these changes, it's called livelihood," Rademacher said. "It's not advantageous to go back to that old game plan. The UAW knows that.
"We have an opportunity now for a whole new work force."
The dramatic makeover of their labor force is what automakers have said they need to eliminate a $30-an-hour labor gap with foreign competitors who operate in the United States. GM alone lost $12 billion in 2005 and 2006, while top rival Toyota Motor Corp. reported a $14 billion profit this past fiscal year.
The contracts, reached this fall after months of grueling negotiations and strikes against GM and Chrysler LLC, touch most every aspect of factory work.
Young replace veterans
Ending are the days when all employees earn the same, enviable wage. Or when the average line worker boasts decades on the job. No longer will workers spend years learning super-specialized skills for jobs that never change.
Instead, 20-somethings thrilled at the prospect of $14-an-hour wages will mingle with UAW veterans proud to have walked picket lines during historic strikes of the 1960s and 1970s.
Workers will be trained in a wide range of jobs and expected to take on a number of different tasks.
Many easier jobs, from janitorial work to security posts -- that for years were workers' reward for a lifetime of physical labor -- will be farmed out to contract companies.
And a new round of buyouts, expected to roll out early next year, will usher out tens of thousands of veteran workers.
"I know five guys who are retiring, and they're going to be replaced by guys who will make $14 an hour and they'll work right next to us," said Jaime Torres, a worker at GM's new Delta Township plant who has spent 35 years at GM. "I understand the company's reasoning.
"But is the guy who replaces me going to be able to put their kid through medical school? I don't think so."
Some changes have been taking shape for years, sprouting up sporadically at GM's more progressive plants. But the 2007 contract, along with local deals being hammered out at factories nationwide, will cement many new practices and forever do away with old ways.
New plant different from old
Production worker Steve Moore scans an anti-lock braking system after installing it on a vehicle
at the Delta Township GM plant.
Almost nowhere is the transformation more apparent than a few miles west of Lansing at GM's Delta Township plant, which Local 602 President Rademacher represents.
The Delta plant is an ultra-modern creation where vehicles stream past on automated lines overhead and robotic arms are in greater supply than flesh-and-blood workers. In many ways, it was GM's reward to the Lansing work force, known for its flexibility and willingness to cooperate with the corporation.
The factory -- which builds GM's hot-selling trio of crossover SUVs, the GMC Acadia, Saturn Outlook and Buick Enclave -- replaces the plant once known as Fisher Body. Originally built in 1920 as part of the Durant Motor Co., the factory was bought by GM in 1935 after years of being idled during the Great Depression. It became known as Lansing's Fisher Body plant before being renamed the Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac plant and, later, Lansing Car Assembly. It was one of the last neighborhood factories in the United States, surrounded by rows of homes and quiet streets.
The last car -- a Pontiac Grand Am -- rolled off the line in May 2005. Delta opened the next year.
By then, Lansing community leaders had convinced GM to build a plant nearby, making their case through a massive campaign with the tagline: "Lansing Works! Keep GM."
"There's a mindset now that we must change," said Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, whose father's GM line job supported a family of seven. "These jobs that are staying, they're technological. They are not the jobs of my dad."
New generation of workers
Workers at the Delta plant take turns doing jobs and take an active role in improving efficiency on the line. They allow GM to hire cheap, contract labor for nonline work.
"There's an openness here," Rademacher said. "It used to be 'We're adding this screw to your job.' Now it's, 'Let's have a meeting. Let's get together and talk about it.' "
While some changes are hard to swallow, Rademacher said, in many ways workers benefit as well: With the buyouts, the contract opens the door for a new generation of autoworkers, many of whom live in depressed Rust Belt communities. While most will start at the lower wage, they'll eventually have the chance to get a job at the higher scale. Plants are safer. And switching jobs often prevents many of the injuries caused by repetitive motion.
But many aren't thrilled -- or willing -- to change.
Some workers in Lansing decided to get out rather than bend. Among them is 63-year-old Phillip O'Connor, who retired from the Lansing plant rather than move to the Delta Township factory.
"I didn't want to go there. It was a totally different work environment," said O'Connor, who retired after 38 years with GM. "I talk to workers who are there now. Some think it's OK. But the majority don't like it."
Article
