By K.O. Jackson, Kokomo Tribune business writer
kirven.jackson@kokomotribune.com
In July, some retired United Auto Workers from Chrysler Group LLC took a six-hour bus drive to Fenton, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis. The road trip was to join 3,500 people in a "Rally for Americans" protest.
Protesters objected to the closure of the sprawling Fenton Chrysler North and South Assembly plants.
Once, more than 6,000 workers produced the Dodge Ram pickup and the Chrysler minivan at the plants. The last Ram left the north plant July 2. The last minivan exited the south plant in November 2008.
Soon, 178 of those unskilled workers will begin working in Kokomo.
Saturday, during a more than four-hour, standing-room-only meeting at Local 685's union hall, members were informed the St. Louis workers will begin Monday, Sept. 28. They will work at the Kokomo Transmission Plant, and Indiana Transmission Plants 1 and 2.
Furthermore, the move - based on seniority and supported by the UAW's national contract - means 178 current Kokomo Chrysler workers will begin accepting unemployment wages of up to 75 percent of their current wages.
Officials did not mention when the Kokomo workers will be informed if they are being replaced.
Under the agreement, St. Louis workers can use seniority to displace a current Kokomo worker. However, if a Kokomo employee moves to another Chrysler facility, they would start again from scratch.
"It's not fair to them or to us," said Holly Brenton, whose husband has worked at KTP 1 for 12 years. "They closed their plant, but now they can come here and take our jobs. That's not fair, but that's how the contract was written. I don't agree with the rules. I don't know anyone who does, but they are the rules we have to follow.
"Everybody is here fighting for a job. You hate to have someone knock you out of your job and you hate to knock someone out of their job. It would be harder for us because if we go to another plant, we can't take our seniority with us. We'd have to start out on day one with nothing and at the bottom of the ladder. That's not fair."
Since emerging from its brief bankruptcy stay June 10 - with assistance of Fiat SpA and a $12 billion U.S. government bailout package - Chrysler has announced plans to close eight U.S. plants. The company said it will not close any plants in Mexico or Canada, even though from 2004 through July 2008, more than 1.6 million Chrysler vehicles were sold in the U.S. versus roughly a quarter-million in Canada.
The closures means workers from the world's sixth largest automaker will begin seeking employment at other Chrysler facilities.
"I think the hardest part of all this is some of our workers will have to train these workers to take their jobs," said Ralph Hickman. "That's going to be a touchy subject with a lot of people, but what do you do? One way or another, this is affecting everybody."
After talking to his members, Rich Boruff, president of UAW 685, took a moment to discuss how the move will affect his 4,000-plus members.
It has already begun affecting him.
For a man whose voice is usually upbeat, after the meeting Boruff's voice seemed strained and his eyes appeared weary.
But the former boxer still had some fight left.
"The bargaining committee fought as hard as we could to stop this from happening and taking place. We fought as hard a we could. This looks like it's one of those fights that someone wins and someone loses. We lost this argument," said Boruff, adding Local 685 members are traveling to a protest rally Friday at the Michigan Sterling Heights Assembly plant where the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger are built.
That facility is scheduled to close in 2010.
"We fought hard for this not to happen."
In July, Leslie W. Ellison and his wife, Kerry, rode the bus from Kokomo to Fenton.
Leslie, a Howard County councilman, retired from Kokomo Transmission Plant with 22 1/2 years of service. Kerry is employed at Indiana Transmission Plant 2.
Leslie said there is already a connection between Kokomo and Fenton: some of Fenton's workers have worked in Kokomo and Kokomo workers have worked in Fenton.
"I couldn't help but to think by the grace of God goes Kokomo," said Leslie, about the Fenton closing. "This could have been Kokomo, luckily Fiat liked our product enough to keep us."