Buyouts lead to mixed emotions, new directions

Print Story

Email to Friend

Discuss this story

Some workers expressed relief about moving on but with some misgivings.

By TIM YOVICH

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — Patrick Watson, Nancy Kunkle and Selane Johnson will be leaving Delphi Packard Electric with mixed emotions, but with a thirst to quench their entrepreneurial ambitions.

All have 12 years with the corporation, and all will take the $140,000 buyout offered them.

Wednesday was the deadline for hourly workers to sign up for retirement or buyout incentives.

Gary Reiser, president of the International Union of Electrical Workers Local 717 that represents the 3,800 hourly workers in the Warren district, said Thursday that more than 3,000 have signed up to retire or be bought out.

The exact number won't be known until Aug. 16, the deadline for them to change their minds and withdraw the paper work.

Watson, 37, of Niles; Kunkle, 44, of Canfield; and Johnson, 36, of Warren, have plans to begin their own businesses rather than work for someone else.

Big plans

Watson, who has a wife and four sons, was being paid $32 an hour as a tool-and-die maker.

Watson said he'll be glad to receive the buyout minus the taxes "and whatever else the government wants to take out."

He could continue working as a tool-and-die maker but would have to find work in Columbus, Cleveland or western Pennsylvania because of the lack of local jobs in his field.

Rather, Watson said he is buying a small service-based business in Niles to support his family.

Although he has mixed emotions about leaving Delphi, he's looking forward to his new career.

"It's kind of exciting to get out of the plant. It's kind of a relief," he noted.

Delphi, which supplies electrical components to the auto industry, has been filled with "doom and gloom" for the past 10 years. It started when the General Motors Corp. moved work to Mexico, Watson said.

"I'll make it some how," Watson said, noting one of the reasons he's remaining in the Mahoning Valley is because of family ties.

"I feel it's time to go," Kunkle said. "God's got other things for me to do."

Rather than looking for work, Kunkle explained that she and her husband will start a business. She wouldn't say what kind of venture is in store for her.

Kunkle expressed relief about leaving but is anxious because she, along with her co-workers, aren't being told when they are finished at Delphi.

"This is good," she said of leaving her job.

Johnson was making $26 hourly on the assembly line making electronic boards. She will miss the hourly wage and health benefits.

"You're not going to replace that. You'll never find that again," said the mother of two.

Johnson sees the job loss as a "new beginning" as she intends to start a commercial cleaning service after her last day at Delphi.

Union troubles

The Local 717 union hall was quiet Thursday. Reiser sat in his office.

Some of his membership have been critical of both Delphi and the union for not keeping them more informed.

"I don't know if there is a good answer for this," Reiser said of the cutbacks at Delphi and General Motors Corp. "We tried to work with them."

Local 717 once had a membership of 13,000, Reiser said. It has dwindled to the current 3,800 and will be down to 1,033 by the end of 2007.

"It's devastating to the local," he added.

Some of those taking buyouts might not get as large a payment as they think they're getting, said Diane Shamrock, administrator of the Trumbull County Child Support Enforcement Agency.

Shamrock explained that Delphi and GM will compile lists of those receiving the buyouts. The arrearage amount of child support will be attached to the buyout checks by CSEA.

yovich@vindy.com

Thursday, August 10, 2006