GM-Moraine workers will vote on tentative contract this week
Monday, October 20, 2008
MORAINE — Workers at General Motors Corp.'s local plant will vote on a tentative contract Tuesday, Oct. 21, and Wednesday, Oct. 22.
Even though GM has slated its Moraine assembly plant for closure Dec. 23, the tentative contract matters because it offers workers a second "special attrition package" — cash from GM for leaving the company or retiring — in four months.
The tentative pact also offers a $3,850 payment to all active members if the agreement is ratified. Other provisions include: A 3 percent performance bonus retroactive to Sept. 15, 2007, tuition assistance and transfer opportunities.
Also part of the contract in question: A VEBA — a Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association, in which GM will contribute $1.6 billion to fund International Union of Electronic Workers-Communication Workers of America retiree health benefits in a tax-exempt trust.
The move would leave the IUE-CWA — which represents about 1,100 remaining workers at the GM-Moraine plant — in charge of growing the fund to cover future retiree health care costs, effective Jan. 1, 2012.
The GM and the United Auto Workers agreed to a VEBA in their separate negotiations last year, and the automaker sought the same retiree system in talks with the IUE-CWA, which began in October 2007 in Moraine.
"It doesn't replace your job," said Harry Bogan, director of the IUE-CWA region which includes the Moraine plant. "But it's a lucrative package. There's something there for everybody."
In -person voting will happen at the plant. Absentee voting has started at IUE-CWA Local 798's downtown hall, 313 S. Jefferson St.
"I feel very comfortable about that," Bogan said when asked if he believes the tentative contract will be ratified. "It's a good package."
A GM spokesman confirmed that voting will happen but declined to comment on details of the agreement.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.
