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Date: July 8, 1992
Title: Can the Fisher Guide Plant Survive the Runoff
Author: Dan B. Levine
Subject: It is likely that a GM plant in Columbus, Flint or Ewing will close. But which one?
After suffering a $4.45 billion loss in 1991, General Motors launched one of the most massive reorganizations in the history of American business. Within a few years, a totally new company will emerge. Already 14 plants in the U.S. and Canada have been notified that they will soon close. Moraine, Ohio, Saginaw, Mich. and Ontario, Canada are just three cities where plants are shutting. In North Tarrytown, N.Y., 3,456 employees will be out of work when their assembly plant closes its doors in 1995.
The GM layoffs could be hitting close to home. Company officials have announced that possibly one of the three Inland Fisher Guide”s plants in Columbus, Ohio, Flint, Mich. and Ewing will be closing. This division of GM is responsible for a number of automotive body hardware components, including power and manual door latches and door handles.
The 6,034 workers in the three plants are locked in a battle for survival. Unions are trying to keep it friendly, but that is hard to do when you are talking about the future of workers and putting food on the table. The company has made its goal clear: “The focus and the demand is that the factories are able to achieve profitability and sustain it,” says Patricia Malloy, director of communications and public affairs for Inland in Warren, Mich.
For the Ewing plant, which employs 2,287 workers, survival may translate into cutting $29 million in costs. “Since these big announcements, we”re pulling our sections together, and people are giving their suggestions,” says Jeff Binz, president of United Auto Workers Local 731, which represents the Ewing plant.
Ewing plant manager Terry Marquis concurs, “We”re trying to cut material costs and reduce excess material. We”ve had progress and come up with a lot of new ideas.” Marquis adds, “We”re asking people to pay more attention so they don”t scrap as much material.”
The Ewing plant faces several disadvantages in competition with the other two. It is the oldest, built in 1938, and the smallest, 1.1 million sq. ft. Workers at the plant produce power and manual seat adjusters, door handles and other accessories. The plant has always been a good corporate citizen, as was highlighted by its being given the Diamond Donor award in late June by Junior Achievement, a program that teaches youth about business, for donating more than $5,000 since 1984 to the program.
After taking office in January, Robert Prunetti, the new Mercer County executive, made the future of the GM plant a top priority. In April he marched outside the plant with the Local 731 retirees association during a “Buy American Rally.” He also set up a special task force and met with plant management and the union. “It would be a tremendous debacle for our local economy if our plant closes altogether,” says Prunetti. “GM contributes about $150 million to our economy through wages and sub-contracts, in addition to local taxes.”
Prunetti believes that New Jersey is at a disadvantage in competing with Flint and Columbus because of the state”s stiffer environmental regulations. He points out that the GM plant in Trenton pays $14,000 a year for one specific permit, while the same permit costs the Columbus plant $1,000 and the Flint plant nothing. He also notes that when GM or any other company in New Jersey is found to violate state environmental regulations, they are fined immediately rather than given a certain period to correct the violations. Prunetti is proposing that state legislators set up an escrow fund when these violations occur so that fines are levied and not collected and the money can be used to abate the violation. “You can use that escrow to abate the problem,” says Prunetti.
Two miles outside the city limits of Flint stands the Inland Fisher Guide plant on Coldwater Road. Railroad tracks surround the 1.8 million sq. ft. facility, which was originally constructed in 1953 as a Buick factory. The plant employs 1,631 workers and produces power and manual window regulators, door and deck lid hinges, modular seat adjusters, aluminum load floors and window guidance components.
Flint has a concentration of GM plants and was the scene of the anti-GM movie “Roger and Me.” Since three GM facilities in Michigan have already been closed this year, nerves among the 1,631 employees are already on edge. The first shift arrives at 6:30 a.m. At 3 p.m. the second takes over, while the third one begins at 11 p.m. “It”s always hanging over their heads. They can”t plan their future,” says Randy Robinson, vice president of United Auto Workers 326 in Flint.
The local has been a major actor in the Flint community by providing large contributions to the United Way and the Easter Seals. “The workers are members of our community and are active in a lot of different areas,” says Shery Bradish, executive vice president of the Flint Chamber of Commerce.
According to the Flint Journal, the plant is $5.2 million over budget this year, but when Gerald Elson, general manager of Inland Fisher Guide, visited the plant on June 2, he was impressed with the cost-cutting measures that had been taken.
James Hale, the local 326 president, worries about GM buying so many products abroad. “It frightens me. It looks like it could be the end of the hard work lines,” he says. “By throwing that open to foreign competition that can outbid us on anything, we”ve got a problem.”
The third Inland Fisher Guide plant in the competition lies on Georgesville Road and W. Broad Street in Franklin County, Ohio, just outside of Columbus. The plant, which employs 2,116 workers, was built in 1945 and is 1.7 million sq. ft. in size. It produces power and manual door latch systems, door frames, pull-down latches, fuel filler doors, exterior moldings and cold headed products for all GM cars and trucks.
According to Gary Guglielmi, supervisor for economic development for the city, Columbus was a small town in the 1950s, when people from the south began migrating there because of job opportunities that plants like Inland Fisher brought. “It”s done a great deal to stimulate development in the western portion of Columbus,” says Guglielmi. Columbus is now the largest city in Ohio, and Guglielmi says a big portion of that goes to the Inland Fisher Guide Plant.
Just as in Trenton and Flint, the Columbus plant is trying to cut costs. “We”re doing the exact same thing as the other two plants to cut costs,” says Bob Pennington, chairman of UAW Local 969. “Everybody”s just trying to make a buck, so they can stay open.” Adds Guglielmi: “If it closed, it would be a tremendous blow to our economy. You can bet we”ll try to do everything to save it.”
The future for the three plants remains unclear. Even if each becomes profitable this year there are no guarantees about Inland”s future. Perhaps John B. Frank, an analyst with PNC Financial in Philadelphia, sums up GM”s situation best when he says, “There is a human element, there, but until you get the costs down, the human aspect is subjugated.” u
Headline: Three Unions Try to Stand in Unison
Officials from GM are saying that the key to survival for the three plants is to achieve profitability. But experts say that the decision will be much more complicated than that.
One of the factors may the attitude of the local unions. In May, the Grand Rapids Press reported that GM had not reopened its contracts with the UAW locals at the three plants, which expire September 1993, because of the plants” uncertain future. “We”re hearing that a lot depends on the flexibility of the labor-management team,” says Sean McAlinden, a researcher at the University of Michigan”s Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation.
John B. Frank, an analyst with PNC Financial in Philadelphia agrees and cites GM”s closing of a Willow Run assembly plant in Michigan as an example of how the company is playing hardball with the unions. The Willow Run plant was in competition with a similar plant in Arlington, Tex. The Arlington workers offered to make changes in work-rules, while the Willow Run plant would not make such concessions. GM decided to close down Willow Run.
Union leaders are worried about being caught in an everybody-loses competition. “We don”t want to whipsaw our sister unions,” says Flint”s Hale. Concurs Ewing”s Binz: “We don”t get in to beat each other.” The three unions met in Detroit last month and decided to negotiate together next year. “That”s a very wise thing to do,” says McAlinden. “To negotiate as a team prevents whipsawing.”
GM could also decide to close more than one of the plants by producing abroad more of the items now being manufactured there. At a GM meeting of supplier executives in June, J. Ignacio Lopez de Arriortua, GM”s new vice president for world-wide purchasing, stated that GM”s internal parts-making divisions would not have any future advantages in supplying GM. Lopez, the former vice president in charge of parts purchasing for GM Europe, presented the head of Lear Seating Corporation, a competitor to the Inland Fisher Guide division, to tell the executives how Lear and GM worked to cut costs in GM”s European operations. Says Frank of PNC Financial: “GM is certainly rattling its sabers.” Inland Fisher”s Patricia Malloy says GM”s clear message on global sourcing is that the company has to be competitive. McAlinden believes that the small parts being made in these three plants can be manufactured anywhere and asks, “Why is GM even making them?”
Finally, the size and modernization of the plants may also be a factor. If GM decides to consolidate the Inland Fisher Division at one location, the Ewing plant would appear to be the loser. It is only 1.1 million sq. ft., while the Columbus plant is 1.7 million sq. ft. and the Flint plant is 1.8 million sq. ft. McAlinden points out Ewing has another disadvantage because the Columbus and Flint plants have a more varied production. McAlinden adds, however, that because the Ewing plant has the most employees, “It would be messier to shut that one down.”
No matter who wins in the great GM runoff, several hundred workers and their families will come out losers. u
