By SCOTT SMITH, Kokomo Tribune staff writer
scott.smith@kokomotribune.com
Today could be the last day of work for 75 production employees in the Electronics & Safety division of Delphi Corp., with the company confirming another round of layoffs Thursday.
The layoffs will be based completely on seniority, and will be spread through different departments in the company's Kokomo operations, company spokesman Milton Beach said Thursday.
Beach said the job cuts - the second wave of production workers cut since last October - are all related to production, with the company carrying more production employees than are needed to handle the current amount of customer orders.
"Hopefully the economy will pick up and people will start buying cars, orders will start coming in and we'll be able to get people back," Beach said.
Each of the laid-off workers will be offered a buyout of $1,500 per month of service with the company, but accepting the buyout will come at the price of severing all ties with the company, Beach confirmed.
The workers' other option would be to go on unemployment, in hopes of eventually being hired back.
Beach said Delphi workers choosing unemployment would also receive supplemental unemployment benefits outlined in the contract between Delphi and the United Auto Workers union. Those supplemental benefits, based on length of service, could raise weekly unemployment pay to up to 95 percent of the employees' regular pay, Beach said.
Jamie Caldwell, a 15-month employee at Delphi and a Kokomo resident, said he and the other workers to be laid off were notified Tuesday.
Caldwell said he'll probably accept the buyout, given the fact Delphi has already announced a goal of trimming its production work force to 6,000 in the U.S. The company had more than 33,000 hourly workers before entering court protection for re-organization in October 2005.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday Delphi's current hourly workforce is about 18,500. The figure showing the company's proposal for cutting its hourly U.S. workforce to 6,000 was part of a Thursday Associated Press story on the company's ongoing efforts to emerge from bankruptcy.
"After the story today, I don't think I'll get back on at Delphi," Caldwell said. "I don't think I'm going to get called back, no."
This week's announced layoffs come after the company laid off 54 other Kokomo production workers Nov. 12, including several who had transferred from former Delphi jobs in Milwaukee, Wis.
Beach said the company currently has a workforce of about 1,800 hourly and 2,300 salaried employees at its Kokomo operations.
Production workers in Kokomo assemble a variety of parts for the company, including engine control electronics, airbag electronics, sensors and integrated circuits.