Assembly-line workers at General Motors? Allison Transmission Plant in White Marsh are closely watching negotiations between GM?s Delphi unit and the United Auto Workers union to see what effect a contract deal may have on local workers.
“We are waiting and concerned about the impact on our brothers and sisters,” said Jeff Beard,vice president of UAW Local 239, which represents most of the roughly 350 workers at the plant.
General Motors and Delphi on Friday announced a tentative deal making every Delphi worker eligible for buyout and early retirement.
Under the deal, Delphi workers with more than 10 years on the job are eligible for $140,000 and those with less than 10 years are eligible for $70,000.
The UAW represents about 22,000 of Delphi?s 31,000 workers. The buyout plan is being closely watched because it could be a model for buyout offers at other GM facilities including White Marsh.
And if more than enough employees go for the buyout, that could create rehire opportunities for GM workers laid off because of plant closings.
“We want to see how many people float back into the GM system,” Beard said.
GM closed the Baltimore Truck Assembly Plant in May 2005, affecting about 1,000 workers.
The buyout deal is part of a supplemental agreement between Delphi, which was spun off from GM in 1999 as a builder of automotive components, and the automaker. But Delphi relies heavily on GM business.
In October 2005, Delphi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and later announced an employee buyout plan as part of its reorganization. That plan did not include all Delphi employees.
News of the tentative deal prompted the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District in New York to postpone previously scheduled hearings on GM?s reorganization.
“The court has advised the parties to continue efforts for a consensual resolution of the issue and work diligently toward an agreement outside the court,” Delphi Chief Restructuring Officer John Sheehan said in a statement.
GM has already announced that it will build a new hybrid vehicle transmission at the White Marsh plant that should create 87 new jobs. It?s not clear how many of those jobs will beassembly line and how many will be non-UAW supervisory positions.
