KOKOMO — Although law-enforcement officials found nothing after last month’s bomb scare at Local 292 headquarters, there have been rumors of scary situations for workers: Will they have jobs? How much will the jobs pay? Who is representing the union?

Last month, United Auto Workers Local 292 was forced to cancel a regularly scheduled union meeting after someone phoned in a bomb threat.

The meeting’s focus was to be a discussion of wages and benefits — a state-of-the-business session, said Kimberly Carpenter, a spokeswoman for General Motors Co.

She said the meeting was scheduled in conjunction with other former Delphi Corp. union members at plants that are now a part of GM Components Holdings.

When Delphi exited its Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October, GM took back five Delphi plants that supplied the automaker with needed parts. To help GM escape bankruptcy, UAW workers approved concessions including reduced pay, holidays and benefits.

In January, GM informed former Delphi UAW workers in Saginaw, Mich., and Lockport, N.Y., more concessions are required: wage freezes and $3-an-hour wage cuts among skill-trade workers.

In 2007, a UAW agreement cut Delphi wages from $28 an hour to $16.50 per hour.

Carpenter said the Kokomo plant, as well as the facilities in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Rochester, N.Y., could also be subjected to the new concessions, but “there have been no concession changes. [The unions] have to vote and ratify the changes. They haven’t done that ... and there has been no announcement” of possible plant closings.

If membership approves the concessions, it could affect more than 5,000 workers at the former Delphi facilities; currently fewer than 900 are employed in Kokomo. In 1999, Delphi had 37 plants with 80,000 U.S. employees.

Not including the sale of the four plants to GM, the auto supplier had four plants with 12,700 employees.

No vote has been held or scheduled for the Kokomo plant. Uncertainty about future employment and union leadership has created rumors about the Lincoln Road facility.

Q and A

As a result, Steve Hartwig, plant manager of the General Motors Components Holdings plant in Kokomo, recently answered questions by e-mail regarding what is occurring at the facility.

Question: Is the plant changing the signage at the Lincoln Road facility from Delphi to GM?

Answer: We do have plans to update the signs in the coming months. The process for updating signage throughout the facility has started and will continue until the signs are changed inside and outside.

Q: What is the latest on union talks?

A: We are continuing our negotiation with our UAW partners on contractual issues including wages, benefits and other items related to the plant’s competitiveness. Talks are ongoing, and we have no further comment at this time.

Q: Are people transferring to the Fort Wayne Assembly Plant?

A: Some union employees that were previously GM employees (before the Delphi separation) have the option to fill jobs in the Fort Wayne Assembly Plant as they add a new shift. (Workers eligible for transfer have seniority dating back to October 1999, before GM spun off Delphi. Those workers are classified as GM employees.)

Q: Is the plant going to close as stated in some rumors?

A: The future of the plant depends on the profitability and the competitiveness of the plant. We are actually pursuing new business opportunities for the site, and we are working with our union partners to be successful in these endeavors.

talks continue

A vote on the GM concessions is needed because union workers at the five former Delphi plants are not covered by a master agreement with GM. But the five “Delphi-Keep” plants can negotiate a separate concessions agreement if necessary, said Ginny McMillin, former president of UAW Local 292, who recently began working for the UAW International Region 3 office in Indianapolis.

McMillin isn’t the only union leader to leave Local 292: Former union vice president Wes Lytle is going to Fort Wayne. New union officers will not be elected until next month.

Regardless, there are workers who want to know who is leading them and what is going on at GM’s Kokomo plant.

They want to have a say in their future.

“I guess we would vote, but the vote would be no,’’ said Jason Goodnight, who has worked at the plant for four years. “The way it is, if there is a change in our contract, we are supposed to vote and have a say in what happens to us.

“They keep telling us that new businesses are coming in, but we are seeing more businesses going out. It doesn’t make sense.”

What does make sense, however, is GM seeking and getting additional concessions from its plants in order to be financially successful.

David Cole, chairman of the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Center for Automotive Research, said for GM to be competitive with other automakers – especially with GM’s bankruptcy still in its shadow – selling a plant, closing a plant or cutting wages are the ways for the carmaker to accomplish it.

“That’s the way the game is now being played,” Cole said. “GM understands it. You get competitive or you die.”

• K.O. Jackson is the Kokomo Tribune’s business writer. He can be reached at 765-854-6739 or via e-mail kirven.jackson@kokomotribune.com