Steve Ewall, a former second-tier wage worker at Guide, will be moving to the GM facility at Wentzville, Mo., doubling his hourly pay.
"I'm going; it's a guaranteed job," he said.
He received his letter from GM to report to the factory June 16 at 6 a.m. It's a final assembly plant for vans.
He'll be joined by 40 to 50 other Guide workers from Anderson.
Don Swegman of Alexandria will be taking the buyout. He's a skilled tradesman at the Fort Wayne assembly plant and said he expects about 500 workers to take the buyout with about 20 percent being skilled trades.
He said workers have until Monday to sign up for the buyout.
Swegman has 31 years with GM and will receive the buyout and his retirement benefits. He said the buyout money can be put in his personal savings plan and won't be taxed until he removes it.
To make up for the exodus of workers, GM will be hiring new people at $14 an hour, Swegman said. But with the contract Guide and GM signed last winter, Guide workers will have full GM wages.
Ewall, 26, was paid $15 an hour at Guide and will get $29.74 at Wentzville, which is about 25 miles west of St. Louis on Interstate 70.
The contract also calls for one Guide worker to be hired for every new hire. If GM would replace all 19,000, then all former Guide workers would have jobs.
That probably won't happen, based on Swegman's assessment. He said all the skilled tradesmen in Fort Wayne who plan on taking the buyout wouldn't be replaced. He said GM considers the plant to have an excess of skilled trades. It's unclear how many production employees taking the buyout will be replaced.
Swegman, 58, decided this was the right time. He didn't take the last GM buyout two years ago when 38,000 workers signed up.
"I would have probably worked another year," he said. "The buyout is enough to offset those wages."
Ewall said he's already visited the Missouri factory.
"It kinda bothers me to move," he said. "But it's only five hours away from home."