Strike may idle GM Lordstown plant

By LARRY RINGLER Tribune Chronicle
LORDSTOWN — The monthlong strike at auto parts maker American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. may halt car production at the General Motors Corp. Lordstown Complex within 10 days, a union official said Tuesday.

United Auto Workers Local 1112 President Jim Graham said the 2,400-worker factory could stop building the Chevrolet Cobalt small cars anytime between Friday and April 4 when it runs out of a part to make brakes that are used by nearby supplier Automodular.

“It’s a relatively small part, but we got to have it,” Graham said.

American Axle makes axles, transmissions, suspensions and many other parts used in trucks and cars.

Dave Green, president of Local 1714 at the next-door Metal Center plant, said management is looking at Tuesday as the day a shortage of the part may affect production.

“It looks like we’ll definitely be affected if things don’t settle down,” he said.

He noted his 1,000 members may continue working a day or two longer than the assembly side in order to fill the system with metal frame parts for the Cobalt and its Pontiac G5 cousin.

GM spokesman Dan Flores said the company only announces when a plant is being idled by a strike, not any future impact a strike may have. He said 28 GM facilities have been shuttered by the Axle strike since it began, but so far the only plants affected have been truck or sport utility vehicle factories, not car factories.

The fuel-efficient Cobalt has been GM’s second-best selling car behind the Chevrolet Impala in recent months as the price of gasoline has risen. Lordstown workers have been putting in overtime Saturday shifts to meet demand.

Any Lordstown workers laid off because of the strike may qualify for Supplemental Unemployment Benefit pay immediately but may have to wait a week to get state unemployment compensation, officials said. Flores said he understands supplemental pay would be reduced once state jobless pay began.

Union officials said they expected the strike to catch up with Lordstown eventually.

“Hopefully, it doesn’t last a long time,” Graham said.

Green said many of his members support the roughly 3,600 American Axle workers, even more after chief executive received nearly $10.2 million last year when the company made $37 million.

He received $9.3 million the year before when the company lost $222.5 million.

“Those guys are standing up to lower wages and health care benefits and things that are critical to the working class,” he said. “At a time when the CEO is making millions of dollars, it doesn’t seem right that everyone else has to take a pay cut.”



lringler@tribune-chronicle.com