The Kokomo Tribune
Apparently, a bailout of a reported $6 billion was too expensive for General Motors Corp.
Concessions that included pay cuts of more than 60 percent, reductions in health care benefits and plant shutdowns were too extensive for the United Auto Workers.
Saturday, Delphi Corp., Kokomo's second-largest employer and the country's largest auto part supplier, filed to restructure its U.S. operations under the Chapter 11 bankruptcy code.
Delphi Chairman and CEO Robert S. "Steve" Miller said no immediate changes will be made. The company will continue to pay its 50,000 U.S. workers and its suppliers. Its 31 U.S. factories will continue to manufacture and ship products.
Hearings are scheduled to begin this week in federal bankruptcy court. Miller said the company hopes to emerge from Chapter 11 in early to mid-2007.
Before then, however, the court could approve factory closings, as well as job, wage and benefit cuts among Delphi's 24,000 UAW workers.
As bad as that sounds, it's important to remember that Kokomo has been through this before.
Continental Steel -- the plant that opened as Kokomo Fence Co. in 1896 and employed 5,000 in its heyday -- closed as Penn-Dixie Industries in 1986. Yet, Kokomo remained despite its demise.
Haynes International, a producer of high-performance alloys that started as Haynes Stellite Works in 1912, filed for bankruptcy last year. It emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy after little more than five months with a three-year, $25 million reinvestment plan, 442 employees in Kokomo and Lebanon, 798 in the United States and about 900 worldwide.
Delphi, as well, has a long and storied history in Kokomo. As GM's Delco Radio Division, the Kokomo complex -- now the world headquarters of Delphi Electronics & Safety -- brought the world the first push-button car radio in 1938, the first signal-seeking car radio in 1947, and first all-transistor car radio in 1957.
Today, it employs 5,500, has a local payroll of about $500,000 annually and is in bankruptcy.
Kokomo has been a manufacturing hub for more than 100 years. And in the last century, many factories have opened and closed.
It's important to remember -- today, more than ever -- Kokomo has been through this before ... and survived.
©2005 The Kokomo Tribune.