A Day of Tears and Relief for GM Workers
Like his father before him, Brian Enright has worked at the General Motors’ Willow Run assembly plant since he graduated from high school, and he planned to keep working there until he retired. So when he heard Monday morning that the plant was set to close in 1993, he panicked.
“It’s like this huge weight fell on me,” said Enright, as he waited in line at the United Auto Workers local to find out whether he could still sign up to transfer to another plant. “I never expected this. They kept saying we were going to stay open.”
GM Chairman Robert C. Stempel broke the suspense for 16,000 auto workers Monday, as he identified 11 of the 21 plants he said last December were slated to close by 1995. The final plant closures--affecting tens of thousands of additional workers--will not be identified for at least several months.
The decision meant tears, depression and resignation for the affected workers in Michigan, New York, Ohio, Indiana and Canada, and rejoicing for those in Arlington, Tex., who beat out their Willow Run colleagues for the right to build the company’s full-size cars, such as the Cadillac Brougham and the Buick Roadmaster.
For the rest of GM’s 300,000 hourly workers, Stempel’s announcement brought an unsettling mixture of relief and anxiety as they survived the first blow and tensed to ward off the inevitable second.
Analysts said Monday that GM’s choice of plant closings was a signal to the union locals still vying to keep their plants operating that they will have to agree to more flexible labor arrangements. GM has said it would like to implement a controversial three-shift system at more of its plants, but has encountered resistance from workers to the 10-hour shifts it requires.
Al Scutchfield, a trustee at Willow Run’s union local, said GM’s unexpected decision to keep the Arlington plant running reflected a strategy aimed at purchasing more auto parts from Mexico and suppliers in Southern states that are typically not unionized and less expensive than their Northern competitors.
Stempel said Monday that engine production at GM’s Moraine, Ohio, plant will be moved to Toluca, Mexico, but he denied that cheap Mexican labor played a part in the company’s decision to consolidate its rear-wheel drive car production at Arlington.
However, the Arlington workers agreed to allow a renegotiation of their contract to set up a three-shift system.
“One message (GM’s decision) sends to the other plants is that if you’re feeling complacent and comfortable, you’d better rethink your positions,” said David Cole, director of the University of Michigan’s Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation.
Lucy Cardona, who attaches windshield wipers to Buick Roadmasters at the Arlington plant, doesn’t care why the plant stayed open. She’s just happy that she won’t have to relocate.
“Just this weekend I had a long, hard talk with my family,” Cardona said. “We were just real relieved. Everybody was praying.”
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