By DEREK R. SMITH and SCOTT SMITH, Kokomo Tribune
It's unclear what incentives Indiana officials will offer Delphi Corp., but Gov. Mitch Daniels has reiterated his stance that his administration will be upbeat in marketing the state to the reorganizing auto supplier.
"I'm fortified in my belief that there's an upside," he said this morning during a visit to Kokomo's Delphi Electronics & Safety headquarters. "That will be our strategy: To persuade Delphi that this is the best place to do business."
Daniels, who emerged from his closed-door meeting with E&S President Jeff Owens wearing a Delphi ball cap, said he stressed the benefits of doing business in Indiana, and used the meeting as a chance "to test my business sense" and learn more about the product lines produced at Delphi's Kokomo operations.
The governor, a former executive at Eli Lilly & Co., said he's optimistic Kokomo can benefit from Delphi's restructuring.
"Why not? Companies consolidate, and this one obviously will have to make some decisions," Daniels said, adding some Delphi operations will be larger in the future and some will be smaller.
Some Delphi workers watched behind railings above as Daniels and other officials talked with the press in the lobby of Delphi's headquarters building in Kokomo Wednesday morning.
Daniels declined to give specifics on incentives the state might offer, adding Delphi's Chapter 11 process is likely to take about 18 months.
Mickey Maurer, president of the Indiana Economic Development Corp., a roundtable of business executives charged by the governor with the task of guiding the state's economic development efforts, will personally handle discussions with Delphi, Daniels said.
Kokomo Mayor Matt McKillip said city officials are "on the offensive" in promoting Kokomo to Delphi, adding Howard County has the highest percentage of high-tech jobs in the state.
"The fact it's profitable here is largely in our favor ... this is the core to their future business," McKillip said.
Asked about recent comments by union officials regarding Delphi's bankruptcy court proposal, the governor said, "It's not up to me to tell the union what attitude to take ... These would still be considered by many Hoosiers excellent jobs."
On Tuesday, United Auto Works Local 292, which represents Delphi workers in Kokomo, distributed a seven-page handout detailing what is says is Delphi's bankruptcy court proposal. Union leadership immediately blasted the proposal as "ridiculous."
"Delphi's proposal is designed to hasten the dismantling of America's middle class by importing Third World wages to the United States. In short, the proposal faithfully reflects a vision of an America in which an elite few live in luxury, while everyone else struggles to make ends meet," UAW president Ron Gettelfinger and vice president Richard Shoemaker said in a prepared statement Friday.
According to the document, production workers would make between $9.50 and $10.50 an hour. Skilled trades workers would make $19 an hour. Newly hired production workers would make $9 an hour and skilled tradesmen would hire in at $18 an hour.
The average Delphi production worker now earns a base wage of around $27 an hour, and total compensation averages around $65 an hour when benefits are factored in.
Delphi employs about 185,000 workers in about 40 countries.
Kokomo is world headquarters of Delphi Electronics & Safety, one of six Delphi divisions. About 5,500 of the division's 29,900 employees work in Kokomo.
Delphi, the nation's largest automotive supplier, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization Oct. 8 after failing to reach an agreement with General Motors Corp. and the UAW.
Proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York are expected to last months, if not years.
Delphi is expected to work with creditors in developing its reorganization plan, which must be accepted by the New York court.
©2005 The Kokomo Tribune.