Team Concept Must Go, GM Workers Warn

The United Auto Workers local representing workers at the General Motors assembly plant in Van Nuys has threatened to strike in 60 days if GM refuses to dismantle many aspects of a new Japanese-inspired manufacturing method the auto maker installed in May, it was learned Thursday.

Peter Z. Beltran, UAW Local 645 shop chairman in charge of contract negotiations, earlier this week gave plant manager Ernest Schaefer notice that a walkout will occur in September if the Japanese “team concept” is not altered or abandoned. (Under the concept, which has been widely heralded as one reason for the success of Japan’s auto industry, job classifications are largely eliminated and worker-management cooperation is encouraged.)

Relations between the company and the Van Nuys UAW local have been tense for some time. On Tuesday afternoon, Beltran had a heated meeting with GM officials to demand that contract negotiations be reopened on July 20.

Workers at the Van Nuys plant ratified the team concept last year by a narrow margin after GM threatened to close the plant. But in union elections held in June, workers elected Beltran as shop chairman, and he has been decidedly against the concept. GM has been struggling to make the Japanese team method work. After seven weeks of using it, however, car production at Van Nuys is 15% behind schedule.

Beltran’s main objection to the Japanese methods being tried at the plant has been eight joint committees made up of labor and management, which cover issues such as ventilation and safety. Before the team concept was installed, those issues were negotiated by the union. Beltran claims that the company has appointed mostly favored employees to these committees.