More job cuts coming to Delphi

Jeff Owens, president of Delphi Corp.'s Electronics & Safety Division, will host a series of "town hall" meetings with salaried employees Monday, detailing plans for what many are expecting to be massive job cuts.

The division, which employs about 4,000 in Kokomo, has struggled to emerge from bankruptcy since a financing package fell through in April.

And Friday brought more bad news for Delphi, with the government warning the Troy, Mich.-based firm it must transfer $1.5 billion in unfunded pension obligations to General Motors by Sept. 30.

Delphi Electronics & Safety spokesman Jay Jiang said rumors of mass layoffs scheduled for Friday are incorrect, however.

"The announcement [Monday] is not about the people's last day; it's about some reductions of salaried employees," Jiang said early Friday. "There will be a process to get that done."

Jiang said he couldn't confirm any specifics about the looming layoffs Friday, and that company officials have not already circulated those facts among its salaried work force.

"We would like our employees to get the message from us first," Jiang said. "Right now is a difficult time for Delphi. A lot of things being said, rumors, are not true. We're trying to survive, and there are difficult decisions to be made."

Debra Cook, director of development for the city of Kokomo, said Friday the company has not shared its plans with the city.

"We've heard the same rumblings everyone else has, but [Delphi] normally doesn't tell us before these things happen," Cook said.

Delphi has been reducing its work force in Kokomo for years, though to date those layoffs have mainly affected hourly production employees.

In 2006, the company offered buyouts, retirement inducements or the possibility of transferring to a General Motors facility to about 2,200 hourly workers.

About 1,800 hourly workers left Delphi that year. That same year, Delphi hired about 1,100 hourly employees to replace the workers who had left through buyouts, retirement or GM transfers. The new hires, now comprising a majority of Delphi's hourly work force in Kokomo, were hired in at a wage just over half what the workers who left were making.

But even with the hourly wage force forced into the lower-tier of the wage scale, and downsized, Delphi announced further layoffs of hourly workers late last month.

The company also announced July 18 plans to vacate three massive buildings in the company's complex at U.S. 31 and Lincoln Road, citing the necessity of saving money in today's market conditions.

The move left Plant 9, Plant 10 and Delphi's Information Technology Center buildings empty.

The one product line still in production in Plant 9 will move to another of the assembly buildings nearby, but most of the space vacated had been occupied by salaried workers.

Although still Kokomo's second-largest employer, Delphi has been trimming its local work force by about 400 employees per year for the past 10 years.

In mid-2003, two years prior to filing for bankruptcy, Delphi employed 6,300 in Kokomo. Today, its work force is about 4,000, including 1,400 hourly workers and 2,600 salaried.

Company officials said consolidation will begin in August, and renovations and upgrades will be made to the facilities where employees will be relocated. The work may continue through the end of the year.

Delphi's Kokomo facilities produce integrated circuits, engine controllers, safety electronics, sensors and power electronics for hybrid and conventional vehicles at the Kokomo manufacturing facilities. Hundreds of engineers are also employed at the headquarters for Delphi's Electronics & Safety division.