Michigan Strike Idles 200 at GM Plant in Brea : Labor: Employees at the seat cover facility were told to go home because a UAW dispute at a sister plant disrupted operations.
About 200 employees at a General Motors Corp. seat-cover plant here were sent home Tuesday because of a strike that idled a sister plant in Pontiac, Mich., that it supplies.
“The employees were sent home because their sole customer is the plant in Pontiac that’s on strike, and the system is full,” said Karen Cullin, a spokeswoman for Delphi Interior & Lighting, the Warren, Mich., GM subsidiary that operates the Brea plant.
“Because of the strike, there’s no need to produce more (seat cover) material,” Cullin said.
Delphi’s first shift worked a full day Tuesday at the Brea plant, which sews seat covers for pickup trucks. But the second shift was sent home after about four hours, Cullin said. It was uncertain Tuesday when the Michigan strike would end or when employees would be called back to work.
Plant officials handed employees a brief notice that linked the closing to the Pontiac plant strike. The notice indicated that work would resume after the labor dispute is settled.
About 5,500 workers at the Pontiac plant went on strike March 31 as part of a United Auto Workers bid to force GM to create jobs for 1,500 workers who had lost their jobs when another Pontiac plant closed.
Delphi opened the Brea plant last year and began producing truck seat covers in July. Many of its employees transferred to Brea from other GM facilities that were closed in recent years as the auto maker struggled to reduce operating costs. A number of Delphi’s employees reportedly transferred from the now-closed GM plant in Van Nuys.
The Brea closing surprised workers at the plant, which began production in July, said Frank Macomber, a GM employee since 1969. “It was really strange, the way they did it.”
Macomber, who transferred to Brea in November, said he was uncertain if employees would be able to receive unemployment benefits.
“They’ve been open for less than a year in Brea,” he said. “I just feel that something about this really stinks.”
