LINDEN, N.J., June 18 — In the sprawling General Motors plant here, age and seniority confer privileges, while youth requires optimism and patience. So as the news spread today that the plant, originally scheduled to close in 2004, would get a year's reprieve, reaction split along generational lines.þþFor older workers like John Brus and Lamont Terry, who have each worked 27 years at the plant, the extension will nudge them just over the 30-year threshold that makes them eligible for generous retirement benefits under the union contract. And it will free them from perennial worries about layoffs and how to extend the life of the 65-year-old plant.þþFor Manny Freitas and Mike Andrews, who between them have fewer than 15 years at the plant, the reprieve means more time to persuade G.M. to retool the plant for a new product to replace its aging Blazer and Jimmy light-truck lines. The two men, who were let go in layoffs this spring, said that a new product could not only restore their jobs but also assure them of continuous work until their own retirement nears.þþÿI'm optimistic,ÿ said Mr. Andrews, 25. ÿMy father retired from here and I grew up hearing about threats to close it. But Linden is a good plant, and they always work things out.ÿþþCompany officials said in February that they would close the plant in 2004, citing decreased demand for the trucks produced there. But on Monday, they announced that more recent projections had shown a stronger demand. As a result, said Dan Flores, a spokesman for the company, ÿa production extension seemed justified.ÿþþÿBut beyond that we just don't know,ÿ he said.þþToday, state officials met at the plant with Guy D. Briggs, a top G.M. manufacturing executive from Detroit, to offer the company a variety of financial incentives — like sales tax relief and money for training — to encourage them to retool and bring a new vehicle to the plant. State officials said details of the incentives were still being worked out.þþÿOur competitive disadvantage is that we are far from the Midwest, site of where the parts come from, but our competitive advantage is that we have an experienced and superior work force,ÿ said George Zoffinger, an adviser to the governor on the auto plant issue. ÿWe came away from the meeting with the feeling that it will take a lot of money and a lot of work to get a new product in there.ÿþþIn their February announcement, G.M. officials said they would immediately cut the plant's two shifts to one and trim the 3,000-person force by 1,200 workers, laying off anyone with 10 years or less on the job.þþKeeping the plant open until 2005, however, still means that the plant will continue with only one shift. Only 4 of G.M.'s 30 plants are operating at one shift, because of lower demand for their product lines, said Mr. Flores, the company spokesman.þþGuy Messina, president of Local 595 of the United Auto Workers Union, which represents the plant's hourly employees, said he was hopeful that because of the additional time, the company's relative health and its plans for several new vehicles would benefit the Linden plant.þþÿIn our business, the longer you stay open, the better your chances for getting a new line, and our time was running out,ÿ he said.þþMr. Terry, the 27-year veteran of the plant's assembly line, slogged across the parking lot today, at once happy about the extension that will get him to retirement and bitter about what the layoffs and past few months have wrought. With the cutback to one shift, the assembly line moves faster and those staffing it are older.þþÿI miss those young people on the line,ÿ he said. ÿIf they don't come back, I might drop dead before I get to 30 years, the way they are working us in there.ÿþ
Source: NY Times
