‘Militant’ UAW Officials Sue GM in Bid to Halt Team Concept’s Implementation

Three United Auto Workers officials have filed suit against General Motors, seeking to halt vast Japanese-style work-rule changes scheduled to be put in place at the company’s Van Nuys assembly plant next month.

The suit was filed with the National Labor Relations Board on Friday by members of the so-called “militant” faction of Local 645 in Van Nuys who seek to keep in place GM’s existing manufacturing techniques.

The suit charges that GM reneged on a promise to make a long-term commitment to keep the Van Nuys plant open in exchange for gaining worker support for the “team concept” agreement, which was narrowly passed by 4,500 rank-and-file workers last May.

The plaintiffs in the suit are Peter Z. Beltran, the UAW local’s president, Paul Goldener, a past president, and Mike Velasquez, a committeeman at large.

Carl E. Sheffer, a GM spokesman in Los Angeles, declined to comment on the suit.

The goal of the new manufacturing system is to reduce defects by making small groups of workers responsible for entire sections of the car, instead of performing single, often mundane tasks.

Team concept has repeatedly been cited by Van Nuys plant manager Ernest D. Schaefer, as well as some union officials, as the reason that the San Fernando Valley factory was spared from a sweeping round of GM plant closings announced last November.

The militants, however, say team concept is merely an excuse for speeding up the assembly line.

The suit claims that GM inappropriately dealt with local UAW members in negotiating the labor agreement. It also alleges that the local’s bargaining committee was unfairly excluded from the process.

Beltran said the suit is not intended to prevent GM from calling back to work the plant’s laid-off second shift.

About 2,200 night-shift workers, laid off last July, were told last week that they would return to the plant May 11, in time for final training before the new system is put into place May 20.