When General Motors Corp. closes its metal stamping plant in West Mifflin on Dec. 12, Jeff Hall of West Newton is hoping there still will be a jobs bank program to provide income for its laid-off autoworkers.
But, the controversial program that was designed to ensure a trained work force would be available when the Big Three automakers increased production after a downturn, may be on the chopping block as the Big Three automakers plead their case to Congress today for $25 billion in government loans to remain afloat.
"This deal with Congress scares me," said Hall, 56, who is the financial secretary for the United Auto Workers Local 544, which represents about 100 workers who will lose their jobs when the plant closes. Hall, a maintenance man, said he is part of a skeleton crew that will continue working for a few months to maintain the plant.
About a dozen of the GM workers at West Mifflin are in a jobs bank program, said Rick Mismas, shop chairman of UAW Local 544, which represents about 100 workers at the plant. The workers stay at home, rather than report to an office, Mismas said.
Union officials said they didn't know the identities of those in the local jobs bank or declined to name them.
"I think the days of the long-term jobs bank is over," said Mismas, who plans to retire on Jan. 1.
The United Auto Workers union and GM, Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co. were negotiating the past week over possibly eliminating the program as a cost-cutting concession to win congressional approval of the $25 billion bailout. Congressional leaders told executives of the Big Three to present a plan for how they will survive. Congress showed little support for loaning money to automakers paying workers in jobs banks that increase labor costs in the auto industry.
Hall said he and about 80 other senior employees might be eligible for the jobs bank program, because the plant shutdown is due to a reduction in volume. But, nothing is certain, Hall said.
Under the jobs bank program, autoworkers who have exhausted their state and federal jobless benefits, and any company-paid supplemental unemployment benefits, will be paid about 85 percent of their regular wages for 48 weeks, said Kristin Dziczek, director of the Center for Automotive Research's program for autoworker labor and education in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The program, which began in the 1980s as a response to the lifetime job security offered by Japanese automakers, was designed to provide laid-off autoworkers job training, alternate work at the plant or work in the community as the company increased productivity, Dziczek said.
But the automakers weren't administering the program properly to ensure productive work was being done by the unemployed, Dziczek said. Workers were being paid to stay home or sit idle at an office because management was too busy running the plant.
"It's turned out to be an embarrassment to all sides," Dziczek said.
The downturn in the auto industry appears to have closed another employment option for the West Mifflin autoworkers -- transferring to a job at GM's Lordstown, Ohio, auto assembly and metal stamping plant. About 50 of the autoworkers at West Mifflin transferred to Lordstown, but it is unlikely any more will work there because 1,100 jobs will be cut at Lordstown next year, Mismas said.
In addition to the hourly workers, the plant closing will eliminate the jobs of salaried workers, about 24 of whom still were on the payroll as of mid-November, GM spokesman Chris Lee said yesterday.
Production at the plant, which opened in 1950, ceased on Nov. 20, Lee said, and workers have been shipping inventory since then. GM plans to hold an auction on Jan. 15 to sell any remaining equipment, Lee said.
"I was hoping to retire as a GM employee," with 30 years of service and a full pension with the company, "but everything went belly up," Hall said.
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