By Brett Wallace, Chronicle-Tribune
More than 250 local General Motors workers appear to have taken a buyout from the auto maker.
United Auto Workers Local 977 President Dave Walker estimated that between 265 and 270 local UAW members took the buyout, although he said he still has not received a definitive, final number.
"I'm not surprised at all," Walker said of the number. "A lot of people figured it would end up there."
General Motors estimated Thursday that 19,000 workers across North America signed up for the buyout program it offered during an almost three-month period that ended May 22 in Marion.
Under a labor agreement reached last fall with the United Auto Workers union, GM may hire up to 16,000 non-assembly workers at half the old wage of $28 per hour to fill the positions opened under its buyout package.
GM said it would fill job openings with current employees whenever possible but would also be hiring new workers.
Walker said any positions filled in Marion would likely first be offered to former GM workers who had been laid off in Muncie or Anderson.
"I'm sure a lot of those guys (in Muncie and Anderson) will take (GM) up on that," Walker said. "We'll encourage as many as we can to do so."
Walker himself started with GM in Muncie and worked for 11 years at that facility.
GM's exact figures on the number of Marion workers who took the buyout would not be available until mid-June, according to spokesperson Alicia Kocher.
In Marion, production at the plant is increasing with the resolution of the three-month strike at American Axle & Manufacturing, according to Kocher, spokesperson for GM in Fort Wayne and Marion.
About 155 people returned to work at the Marion GM plant last week, she said.
GM plans to bring back the remainder of workers last week and the week of June 9, Kocher said.
"Everyone on layoff will probably be back then," she said.
Walker estimated that 57 of the temporarily laid-off workers will return today.
GM Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner is expected to announce restructuring for GM manufacturing and assembly plants Tuesday at the company's annual meeting in Delaware.
That move is also expected to involve some production cuts.
Neither Kocher nor Walker were willing to speculate on how that decision might affect the Marion operation.
GM's Marion plant is a stamping facility and primarily supplies parts to GM's assembly plant in Fort Wayne. That plant mostly assembles pickup trucks.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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