Van Nuys Workers Blast GM Report on Their Plant

Several current and former workers at General Motors Corp.’s assembly plant in Van Nuys on Thursday blasted an internal GM study that showed the plant had the worst production quality among GM’s 21 North American facilities.

“We reject that study,” said Peter Beltran, a retired GM worker who is campaigning to become the next president of United Auto Workers union Local 645, which represents the plant’s hourly workers.

Although conceding that the workers are “obviously to blame for part” of the plant’s problems, Beltran claimed that the study failed to take into account low-quality parts that outside manufacturers provide the plant, where GM builds the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird sports cars.

The assembly workers should not be held accountable for faulty electrical parts, convertible tops that leak and doorway panels that don’t align with the doors, he said.

The study, performed in late-1989 and disclosed by the media last week, said the Van Nuys plant had 676 problems per 100 cars produced. The top-ranked GM facility, a Buick City, Mich., plant that builds the Buick Le Sabre, had 250 problems per 100 cars.

Beltran and the other workers also alleged at a news conference in front of the Van Nuys plant that GM intentionally leaked the study to the media. GM did so, Beltran claimed, because it wants to turn public opinion against the workers in the event GM decides to close down the plant.

GM already has announced that the next generation of Camaros and Firebirds, expected to debut by 1993, will not be built in Van Nuys. GM is mulling the idea of letting the plant build other models but has made no guarantees. Meanwhile, some workers have threatened to start a consumer boycott of GM vehicles if the plant is closed.

GM leaked the study, Beltran asserted, because if GM shutters the plant, “they want to influence the community against the workers so the community won’t become aroused and join with the workers in a boycott of their products.”

James W. Crellin, GM’s director of media relations in Detroit, said it was “absolutely untrue that General Motors leaked” the study. He added that GM does not use the study to rank its plants, because the study also measures consumer satisfaction with items the assembly workers have no control over, such as the placement of a car’s mirrors or seat belts.