GM-UAW AGREEMENT

Hard-luck Flint gets good news with new plant

Autoworkers praise contract that keeps factories open, makes temp workers permanent.

Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News

FLINT -- Joyful hooting and applause erupted from United Auto Workers Local 599 on Sunday afternoon, the sounds wafting down a city street blighted by decaying homes, weed-choked lawns and rusted cars.

The celebration came as hundreds of General Motors Corp. factory workers learned details of a new labor pact that guarantees plants in their battered blue-collar town will stay open for years to come.

The agreement calls for a new factory to be built near the old Buick City complex, according to several local union leaders who saw the deal. GM plans to build an engine plant that would employ 600 to 800 workers, the sources said.

"I'm going to be able to take care of my kids better now," said 31-year-old Lezander Thompson, a grin spreading across his face. Thompson, who works at the Flint North Powertrain plant represented by Local 599, is among thousands of temporary workers who will become permanent employees at a higher pay scale under the deal. "This feels good," he said.

The UAW began to roll out details of the landmark agreement this weekend, as hundreds of rank-and-file workers turned out for Sunday afternoon meetings at two Flint union locals.

In coming days, thousands more workers will attend similar meetings at locals across the country in preparation for a ratification vote on the deal.

Union officers from across the country unanimously voted in favor of the agreement Friday, the first step in the ratification process.

Rank-and-file members will vote on the deal between now and Oct. 10 at separate local elections.

The tentative agreement, reached last week after a two-day strike, includes unprecedented job guarantees for 16 assembly factories and dozens of parts plants across the nation.

But in few towns was the excitement more palpable than in Flint, where many see a deal that gives the hard-luck town a reprieve from its decades-long demise. GM's plant closings in the 1980s cost the city 30,000 jobs and became the subject of Michael Moore's documentary, "Roger and Me," an unflattering portrayal of a rust belt despair.

"It's stopped the bleeding -- for years we've been bleeding," said Walt Duvernois, president of Local 658, which represents workers at the Flint Metal Center. "People are pretty excited."

In addition to the promise of new products, temporary workers were jubilant to learn they would be hired in permanently at the higher wage rate. GM hired temp workers to fill openings created by last year's massive buyout program.

The agreement also calls for the creation of a massive company-funded, union-run trust to fund retiree health care. GM will pay about $35 billion to offload $50 billion in retiree obligations.

"They did a lot better than I thought they would," said Martin Duff, who has worked at Flint North for more than 20 years. "Everybody is taken care of, from the temp workers to the guy that retired 10 years ago."

In the end, what were supposed to be major points of contention -- two-tier wages, the shift of retiree health care to the union -- meant almost nothing to workers who only wanted a secure paycheck.

"There's bad times all over the world right now -- for us to get what we did, it's a good deal," said Timothy Heller, who's worked 22 years at the metal center. "The state can't even get together to get an agreement. You have to be thankful."

The deal promises to pump work into Flint-area factories that employ more than 6,000 blue-collar laborers.

Flint Truck and Bus will build full-size trucks and heavy duty commercial cabs until 2011, according to a summary of the deal distributed to union leaders last week. Starting in 2012, the plant will start building the next line of trucks and cabs. Parts plants were given similar promises.

The new facility would build three types of engines, producing about 1,200 a day, union sources said. The work is expected to help compensate for the loss of GM's 3.8-liter V-6 engine, which it built at Flint North and is being phased out next year.

In all, six Michigan assembly plants were promised work for at least another five years. Some of the guarantees will carry plants for almost a decade. GM's Delta Township plant near Lansing, for example, will begin building a new line of large crossovers in 2012.

The promise of work was GM's major tradeoff to get the union to agree to two-tier wages, a system the union has fought for years. The lower wage rate will be as low as $14 an hour and will apply to jobs considered "non-core" automotive jobs, such as working in the paint shop and driving finished vehicles.

"The way things are right now," said Bruce Mothershed, a 30-year GM worker from Flint Township. "We did pretty good."

Detroit News Staff Writer Louis Aguilar contributed to this report. You can reach Sharon Terlep at (313) 223-4686 or sterlep@detnews.com.