DETROIT (AP) -- More than 70 percent of Delphi Corp.'s hourly work force will leave by the end of the year as the nation's largest auto parts supplier works to emerge from bankruptcy by transforming into a smaller company.þþDelphi said Tuesday that another 1,400 workers represented by the United Auto Workers union have decided to accept buyout offers worth up to $140,000 each. That brings to 20,100 the number of Delphi production workers who have decided to leave by Jan. 1, either through buyout offers or early retirement packages.þþDelphi had 27,500 unionized workers as of June 30, and 12,400 UAW members previously accepted early retirement offers. Another 6,300 members of the International Union of Electronic Workers-Communications Workers of America also will take buyouts or early retirements, Delphi said.þþThe departures do not include about 5,000 other Delphi workers who will leave the company and return to General Motors Corp., its former parent, by September 2007.þþSeveral thousand Delphi workers will be replaced by lower-paid temporary workers as the company closes or sells 21 of its 29 U.S. plants, Delphi spokesman Lindsey Williams said.þþ''We're going to be a smaller company with fewer plants, and we'll be in fewer businesses. With that comes a need for fewer employees,'' Williams said.þþThe smaller Delphi will have eight U.S. plants that make electronics, safety systems, heating and air conditioning systems and some mechanical parts. The plants slated for sale or closure make steering systems, brakes, dashboards and other parts that Delphi no longer considers part of its core business.þþThe buyouts of are another victory for current members of the UAW but another loss for the future of the union and organized labor as a whole as union membership continues to dwindle.þþThe UAW had 1.2 million members 20 years ago; it now has less than 600,000. Twenty percent of the nation's work force was unionized in 1983. By 2005, union membership had dropped to 12.5 percent of the work force, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.þþWorkers taking early retirements were offered a lump sum payment of $35,000, while others will receive buyout packages ranging from $40,000 to $140,000 based on years of service, Delphi said. Employees accepting buyouts would give up all benefits except for vested, accrued pensions.þþGM will fund the lump-sum payments to hourly workers who take the retirement incentives, and it will pay for half the buyouts and some post-retirement benefits, Delphi said in a statement.þþWith such a huge exodus of workers, Delphi will have difficulty manufacturing parts as it goes through the transition, said Kevin Reale, research director for AMR Research, an industry consulting company. The company must make sure the temporary workers are properly trained to put out quality parts, he said.þþ''If I was a customer at Delphi, and it was losing that amount of production people, I would have a concern,'' he said.þþDelphi will work with its unions to make sure the temporary and remaining workers continue production until the plants are closed or sold, Williams said.þþTroy-based Delphi, GM's former parts-making wing, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October.þþDelphi continues to negotiate with GM and its unions on wage reductions for its remaining hourly workers.þþ
Source: NY Times
