DaytonDailyNews.com

Although Dayton does not have a General Motors Corp. plant with workers represented by the United Auto Workers, the area won't escape the impact of a UAW strike that lasts more than a few days.

Willie Thorpe, the locally based Automotive Board chairman of the International Union of Electronic Workers-Communication Workers of America, which has some 2,300 members working at the GM-Moraine SUV assembly plant, thinks a local impact will be felt sooner rather than later.

"I'd say it will be pretty quick," said Thorpe. "In a few days, no doubt."

Thorpe was not certain how much inventory was in place at the Moraine plant, which straddles Stroop Road west of Kettering Boulevard. While the plant is not represented by the UAW, it receives transmissions, engines and other parts from plants which are.

"There's an assortment of (UAW-made) parts there," Thorpe said.

Thorpe and other IUE-CWA representatives are scheduled to open talks with GM representatives Tuesday. Thorpe said the talks will only open if the strike continues. Then talks will simply stop, if the strike has not ended, he said.

"If they face a strike, that's all we'll do," Thorpe said. "Then we'll pull back."

Joe Buckley, president of UAW Local 696, which represents about 600 workers at Delphi Corp.'s Needmore Road plant, which makes brakes for GM, expects a strike effect to hit his plant in "days," if the strike continues.

"I will say, it will happen in a matter of days," Buckley said.

Asked if the local impact could be felt in a week or less, Buckley said, "Right."

"Naturally, you have to be concerned," he added.

Local GM workers were watching developments closely after the UAW declared plans to strike if a deal has not been reached with GM. The UAW set an 11 a.m. strike deadline. CNN reported that 73,000 UAW members began to walk off the job after 11 a.m.

"Talks are continuing, and we continue to watch," Jessica Peck, a spokeswoman for the GM-Moraine plant said shortly before 11 a.m.

Once the strike began, Peck declined to discuss the plant's inventory situation.

Tom Wickham, a GM spokesman, declined to say how a UAW strike may affect the Moraine plant.

"At this point, the only thing I can say is talks are continuing," Wickham said before the strike deadline.

The Moraine plant assembles the Chevrolet TrailBlazer and Trailblazer SS, GMC Envoys and Envoy Denalis, as well as the Saab 9-7X and Isuzu Ascender.

In a statement made earlier Monday, Ron Gettelfinger, UAW president, said he is "shocked and disappointed" in GM, accusing the company of failing to recognize the sacrifices the union has made in recent years.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.