Last-Minute Surge for GM Buyouts

At a General Motors Corp. foundry in Defiance, Ohio, a steady stream of workers entered and left the benefits office Friday, turning in paperwork that will change the course of their lives, their company and their union.

The scene was repeated at many plants across the country on the last day for GM workers to decide whether to retire early, take a buyout or stay with the nation’s largest automaker.

The last-minute surge in sign-ups prompted some local union officials to predict that estimates of 30,000 GM workers taking the attrition packages would either be met or surpassed when the final numbers come in.

“The door is revolving,” said Dwight Chatham, president of United Auto Workers Local 211 in Defiance, who was in contact through the day with managers at the plant.

Chatham described the turnout as huge at his local, estimating that 600 or more of the 2,100 workers there would leave the company. Initially he thought half that many would take the packages.

In Flint, Mich., Walt Duvernois, president of a 4,200-member local at seven GM plants, reported a similar turnout and said he wouldn’t be surprised if the number exceeded 30,000 nationwide.

“If any of the other plants are doing what my home plant is doing today, it’s going to be quite a few extra,” he said.

No official numbers were available Friday from either GM or the UAW. GM said it would release preliminary numbers Monday.

Last week, UAW officials said 25,000 workers had signed up to leave GM and 8,500 had accepted early retirement offers at Delphi Corp., a former division of GM and its largest parts supplier.

Union officials at Delphi plants in Michigan were busy Friday, with more workers accepting $35,000 to retire, pushing the 8,500 number even higher. Friday also was the deadline for Delphi workers to take the retirement packages offered in March.

“Today it was a steady line of people there to get their paperwork turned in,” said Jim Hurren, president of a Delphi UAW local in Flint.

With GM and Delphi combined, union officials estimated that at least 38,500 people would leave the company. And that’s just those represented by the UAW.

Earlier this month, Delphi greatly expanded its buyout offers to UAW workers and extended them to 8,000 members of the International Union of Electronic Workers-Communications Workers of America.