Michele Barks clearly remembers her first day of work at GM\u2019s Delta Township plant near Lansing, Michigan back in January.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was snowing heavily and 11 degrees and I froze,\u201d says Barks.<\/p>\n
Snow and cold temperatures are part of the adjustment for some 480 former Tennesseans who moved north\u00a0to keep their GM jobs. As part of the massive re-tooling of the automaker, GM has to make some difficult\u00a0decisions on how to emerge from bankruptcy as more efficient company.<\/p>\n
That meant cutting plants. So, the Springhill Plant had to go. The Delta operation was\u00a0already making two crossovers\u2026the Buick Enclave and the GMC Acadia. GM managers decided moving\u00a0another \u2018sister vehicle\u2019\u2026the Chevy Traverse…to Lansing from Springhill would save the company money. Delta would add \u00a0and add a third shift. And even though the move shuttered a GM plant\u2026the UAW bought in to the plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the new GM business model makes sense,\u201d says Local 602 president Brian Fredline, \u201cyou don’t have five plants building the same product, you have one plant on three shifts building the same product.\u00a0 That reduces your overhead and it increases your profitability.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thanks to the federal \u2018Cash for Clunkers\u2019 and a recent uptick in the US economy, GM dealerships need more vehicles which looms as an indicator that the Delta plant is positioned well to keep all three shifts running.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re seeing a little bit of recovery in the industry right now,\u201d says Mark Reuss president of GM, \u201cbut more importantly we’re seeing unpredicted demand in popularity for our vehicles which is a really good sign.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the newbies at the Delta plant\u2026making the move from Tennessee wasn\u2019t easy\u2026and the sometimes bitter Winter weather has taken some getting used to\u2026but for Michele Barks knowing there\u2019s a paycheck each week makes the adjustment easier to take.<\/p>\n
Says Barks, \u201cRight now, I’m just happy to have a job and I really don’t care what shift I work. I don\u2019t prefer third shift but I’m just glad to be here and be working. That’s the main thing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Michele Barks clearly remembers her first day of work at GM\u2019s Delta Township plant near Lansing, Michigan back in January. \u201cIt was snowing heavily and 11 degrees and I froze,\u201d says Barks. Snow and cold temperatures are part of the adjustment for some 480 former Tennesseans who moved north\u00a0to keep their GM jobs. As part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4732,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-330622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4732"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330622\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}