Tuesday, January 19, 1999
UAW struggling to keep plant alive
The Associated Press
LORDSTOWN, Ohio — Back in the 1960s, Darwin Cooper and his buddies often confronted their bosses at General Motors Corp.'s big Lordstown assembly plant.
Now they're negotiating with them, trying to find a way for keep the factory open.
Mr. Cooper was just 19 when he was hired at the then-new plant 33 years ago. He had a job with good pay and good benefits and couldn't imagine a threat to the plant.
Worker-management relations were often fiery. During the plant's first dozen years, there were strikes and near-strikes. Lordstown GM workers quickly built not only cars, but a reputation.
“It was a young and radical work force,” Mr. Cooper recalled.
But there was demand for small cars, and employment at Lordstown kept growing, to about 10,000.
Now 52, with silver hair and glasses, Mr. Cooper stopped working at the plant a year and a half ago to devote his time to issues facing United Auto Workers Local 1112, the local representing the plant's present 5,300 workers. He is the local's vice president.
Lordstown GM's situation now contrasts sharply with those early years. The self-assurance is gone. The UAW is negotiating with GM to keep Lordstown GM going past the year 2002, when production of the Pontiac Sunfire and Chevrolet Cavalier is to end.
“I think there is a lot of concern. I wouldn't say worry, though,” Mr. Cooper said.
GM Vice President Mark Hogan said last week a plan to replace some of the automaker's unprofitable small-car assembly plants with more efficient ones would reduce labor costs.
The new plants are expected to cut costs by giving independent suppliers a larger role in designing and assembling parts.
If Lordstown is selected for the next generation of GM small cars, the work force is likely to fall to about 2,000. Workers and others see that as better than a plant closure, since retirements and buyouts could ease the downsizing.
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