The area's General Motors manufacturing facilities are still producing parts and assembling vehicles while officials at the company's Detroit headquarters continue to try to forge a path of long-term viability for the beleaguered automaker.
Company spokeswoman Alicia Kocher said the Marion plant will return to three shifts of production beginning Monday, although she said the third shift will remain only in partial production.
"Obviously it won't be 100 percent, but it will be closer to it than last week," she said.
The Marion facility started out the year with a large number of employees on temporary layoffs. Kocher said the plant ran with only part of its first-shift work force during the week of Jan. 5. By this week, the plant was back to full production levels on first shift and had also resumed partial production levels on second shift.
With the plant moving back closer to 100 percent employment, Kocher said she's not aware of any other scheduled down time in Marion's future.
"It always depends on the market climate and what's going on in the economy, but right now we don't see any further announcements for Marion," she said.
United Autoworkers Local 977 officials contacted Friday were unable to immediately provide totals of how many workers have been affected at the Marion facility.
In Fort Wayne, Kocher said production has remained at 100 percent through the early weeks of the new year.
"We've had no down time (in Fort Wayne) this month," she said.
That assembly facility is still scheduled for a two-week shutdown beginning March 2, she said. There will be no production in Fort Wayne at all during that time period.
GM leaders in Detroit continue to find ways to cut costs and meet the requirements of the bridge loan extended to it late last year by the U.S. government.
The Detroit Free Press reported Friday that, according to COO Fritz Henderson, General Motors is unlikely to demand further wage concessions from the United Autoworkers during its most recent renegotiations of the national contract between the two.
GM spokesman Tony Sapienza said he couldn't comment on the specifics of ongoing negotiations but said many ways to potentially reduce labor costs are being discussed.
"We have several options we are looking at as we discuss the terms of the bridge loan with our UAW partners," Sapienza said.
Analysts have said U.S. labor costs between the Detroit Three and their foreign-owned competitors are relatively the same for active workers, although the pension and health-care costs for Big Three retirees are significantly higher than those within the other companies.
"The wages are very close," Sapienza said. "But there is an opportunity for both GM and its partners to become more competitive."
The terms of the government's loan require GM to address its labor costs, and Sapienza said that's what is continuing to happen.
"We're confident we will meet the requirements of the loan with our partners," he said.
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