Sale of DC plant has employees spinning wheels

[skylight]

Sale of plant has employees spinning wheels


DaimlerChrysler's spinoff of New Castle Indiana facility to Metaldyne gives workers limited options
By Ted Evanoff
January 3, 2004


Pendleton-area farmer Jeff Sanders gave up full-time farming years ago for the security of high wages in an auto plant.


Never did he think he would walk away from a $25-an-hour factory job with an attitude approaching bitter humor. But that is what is happening these days.


DaimlerChrysler AG on Friday spun off its 1,200-employee landmark plant where Sanders works, New Castle Machining and Forge, to auto parts maker Metaldyne Corp. of Plymouth, Mich.


When Sanders returns Monday after the holiday break, his shop's entire $25-an-hour crew will be replaced under a new Metaldyne labor contract that offers $16 an hour.


Daimler's Chrysler Group had been losing money in part because it spent too much to produce autos. One remedy was to hand over the machine shop to Metaldyne.


Sanders' story is worth telling not because he is going to get jimmied out of the best wages he has ever earned. In fact, this is the point. He will get paid even after he stops showing up at his station, a computerized machine that turns out PT Cruiser parts.


"I guess I didn't go to college, but I need to understand how you can pay a guy not to work and then outsource the parts he's supposed to be making to someone else making $16 an hour and then say the parts are cheaper," said Sanders, a 44-year-old father of three grown children.


"Big business operates a lot differently from what I understand."


Over the next months, Sanders will be paid steadily at the $25 rate even after he walks out the door of Metaldyne, leaving him a lot better off than most of the 86,000 Indiana industrial employees idled in this manufacturing downturn.


Under terms of a deal the UAW negotiated in the 1980s for its dislocated union members, DaimlerChrysler will pay him and other displaced machine shop workers in a jobs bank 95 percent of their current take-home pay.


The jobs bank is a name for the pool of idled workers. They will get the 95 percent income until regular jobs open for them at Chrysler's 8,500-employee Kokomo transmission complex.


"I've been told so many different things, I don't know what to believe," Sanders said, noting it first looked as if he could work at the Metaldyne machine shop for a year. Now it's only until April.


And early on it sounded as if each employee transferring to Kokomo would receive $25,000 in relocation assistance, or $50,000 in the case of the Sanders household. His wife Susan also works in the machine shop.


But the $25,000 figure was per household.


"If my wife and I both end up in Kokomo we're going to get $25,000, but if we get divorced and live in sin we'll get $25,000 apiece," Sanders said. "It's not right."


Another thing about this deal was irksome for Sanders. Last summer, New Castle workers had to chose one of four paths.


They could stay on as Metaldyne employees at $16 an hour, enter Chrysler's Indiana jobs bank, enter Chrysler's national jobs bank or accept a buyout and leave the company. As part of the buyout, Chrysler would pay about $75,000 to $100,000, depending on variables such as number of years worked.


Sanders went to a lawyer who advised he volunteer for nothing. Chrysler automatically would put him in the Indiana jobs bank.


That looked like a sound course in the summer. But by late September, Chrysler had won UAW consent to close a handful of U.S. plants, including the 1,000-employee Indianapolis foundry, by 2008.


Suddenly, the Indiana jobs bank looked like it was going to get awfully crowded. There was no certainty when he might be sent to Kokomo.


Sanders now wishes he had voted for the national jobs bank since he thought he might have had a shot at landing in Chrysler's parts depot at Orlando.


"We shouldn't have had to make a decision before we had the new national contract in front of us," Sanders said. "We didn't know al

[Hooligan]

Anyone ever hear of NAFTA?? This is the same thing, sell your plant, union MUST take a cut, then turn around and make the plant your sole supplier, give a few "crumbs" to a couple of other suppliers so it looks good. Been there, done that [xx(]!!!!

[Punch]

I can beat that, about 10 years ago, my employer decided to get rid of the caboose at the rear of trains, our own union said it would be wise to take the companies offer, and that anyone employed before a certain date would be a protected employee, we also received a raise.

employess who no longer had a job do to a surpluss of wmployess, were placed on a furlough board, where they would receive a monthly payment of aprox. $2000, but were subject to transfer anywhere in north america.

2 years into this, guys on the furlough board were transfered to various locations, I have guys in toronto, from montreal, halifax, moncton, and BC, they are only temporarily here ( going on 2-3 years now), and the company refuses to relocate these people, and their families.

Punch

[Rolo]

The purpose of business is to develop and manufacture products/provide services to be sold competitively, not to provide lifetime employment.

[skeeter1620]

As harsh as it may seem Rolo is right , these companys are in it for one thing and that is to make money and if they can find a way to make a short cut and still get the same results then viola its a smart business move. It just sucks that it has to happen to good hard working people

[IRPT]

Not everyone is that way, not long ago there was a story in the paper about a small company which gave each employees a bonus of $1000.00 for each year the employee had worked for the company. Some employees received bonuses of $20,0000.00 and up.

[quicksilverdon]

The way business treats employees is nothing new - it's what caused the rise of unions and communism. I'm surprised the parts aren't being made overseas.

[Hooligan]

quote:Originally posted by quicksilverdon

The way business treats employees is nothing new - it's what caused the rise of unions and communism. I'm surprised the parts aren't being made overseas.

YET!!!![}]

[Stephen R.]

The local paper ran a series about China recently. HOLY CRAP!!

That country is getting a taste of Capitalism. Give it a generation or two and watch out...

BTW: Walmart has a big buying center over there. I do not shop at Walmart, but weren't they waving the flag not so long ago? I think they faded off on that and are now using Pavlovian advertising methods like "always the low price".

You cannot keep livin' off of old stock market winnings, inheritances, and reverse mortgages.

[quicksilverdon]

Sometimes I think that the last things Made in America are my kids.