As part of its plan to produce the Chevy Volt and other future electric vehicles, GM has opened new plants and facilities to produce its own electric-vehicle parts and batteries. Absent from these new facilities? The United Auto Workers union.
Although GM will be producing the Chevy Volt at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant with the help of UAW labor, other crucial parts will be sourced from eight different facilities in the region – some of which are non-union. This shift from pure UAW-sourced labor to open labor is seen by many as an indicator of the waning power of the UAW.
The first example of the core component of the upcoming Chevy Volt, the lithium-ion battery pack, was produced just last month in suburban Detroit – without UAW workers. GM says that facility is starting with 25 non-UAW employees, and says it could grow to 100.
One of GM’s major suppliers, Delphi, will be opening a new electric-vehicle parts plant in Kokomo, Indiana, also without a UAW presence. Delphi says that the new plant in Kokomo will utilize five hourly workers and five or six salaried workers at first, eventually ramping up to as many as 190 workers.
Without the UAW being involved in many critical components of the Volt and other future GM vehicles, GM should be able to reduce its costs and help return to profitability. But many spokespeople for the UAW, and the workers themselves are upset with GM as they believed that the concessions given during the bankruptcy restructuring were made to ensure jobs like these would go to the UAW.
“We were told that all the concessions we made would make us competitive for new jobs,” said Gregg Shotwell, a retired worker for GM and Delphi. “What happened with these jobs?”
http://www.leftlanenews.com/gm-and-delphi-open-plants-without-uaw-labor.htmlI'm trying to find a better link for the story rather than an unsourced blog post...
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