General Motors Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

GM Union Agreement Could Put Martinsburg Facility Back To Work

Though it wasn’t official Monday, various news organizations reported a tentative agreement between GM and the United Auto Workers.

A tentative agreement between General Motors and its workers union could put an Eastern Panhandle facility back to work.

GM and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative deal on Monday to end a nearly six week strike that idled a distribution center in Martinsburg.

The GM deal is expected to be similar to ones reached with Ford and Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler.

About 100 employees in Martinsburg have been part of the strike for five weeks.

Workers at all three companies would have to ratify any agreement, which is expected to include a pay increase and more generous retirement contributions.

GM’s largest plant in North America, in Spring Hill, Tennessee, joined the strike on Saturday.

Auto Workers Strike Expands To West Virginia GM Distribution Center

Workers at the General Motors distribution center in Martinsburg walked off the job on Friday.

They were among 38 GM and Stellantis distribution centers in 20 states that joined the United Auto Workers union’s strike at GM, Ford and Stellantis assembly plants.

Stellantis is the parent company of Chrysler. The Martinsburg center employs about 100 workers. Last week, 13,000 workers walked off the job. On Friday, 5,600 joined the effort.

The companies say they’ve laid off another 6,000 workers as a result of the shutdowns.

Among other changes, the UAW seeks a 36% increase in wages over four years. The union also wants a 32-hour workweek for 40 hours of pay and to restore traditional pension plans for newer workers.

The union cites record profits and executives making tens of millions of dollars in compensation. The companies say they face new costs in the transition from conventional cars and trucks to electric vehicles.

In a statement, GM spokeswoman Tara Stewart Kuhnen, called the move “unnecessary” and accused the UAW of manipulating the bargaining process.

Still, she said, the company “will continue to bargain in good faith with the union to reach an agreement as quickly as possible.”

A Stellantis site in Winchester, Virginia, also joined the picket lines on Friday.

April 24, 2001: Civil Rights Leader Leon Sullivan Dies at 78

Civil rights leader Leon Sullivan died on April 24, 2001, at age 78. The Charleston native graduated from Garnet High School and West Virginia State College before being trained in the ministry at Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University. In 1950, he became minister of Philadelphia’s Zion Baptist Church. During his 38 years at Zion Baptist, the church grew into one of the nation’s largest congregations.

In 1971, Sullivan became the first African American to serve on the board of General Motors. In 1977, he initiated the Sullivan Principles, a code of conduct for companies operating in South Africa, which was segregated racially by apartheid. General Motors and other companies adopted the Sullivan Principles, which proved to be one of the most effective strategies for ending apartheid. In 1999, the United Nations adopted the ‘‘Global Sullivan Principles’’ as an international corporate code of conduct.

Sullivan also founded the Opportunities Industrialization Centers, or O.I.C., which created jobs in some 70 U.S. cities and countries around the world. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 2000, the city of Charleston renamed a major thoroughfare Leon Sullivan Way.

Ohio Valley Automakers Hit Brakes To Limit Coronavirus Transmission

Automakers across the Ohio Valley are temporarily closing their plants in response to the coronavirus pandemic. That includes the big three U.S. automakers — Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler — and Toyota.

In a release, GM said it will be suspending manufacturing in North America due to market conditions and to deep clean facilities. The closures are expected to last until about the end of the month. From there production will be re-evaluated on a week-to-week basis.

United Auto Workers President Rory Gamble agreed with the GM decision, saying in the statement that the suspension of work will help protect the health and safety of the union’s members. “This will give us time to review best practices and to prevent the spread of this disease,” Gamble said.

Ford, which operates six manufacturing facilities in the Ohio Valley, is also suspending operation until about the end of the month.

Todd Dunn, president of UAW Local 862 in Kentucky, said Ford is working on a long-term plan for workers to practice social distancing and keep workers safe.

Kentucky is home to GM’s Corvette plant in Bowling Green, which employs about 1,400 people, and a Ford facility in Louisville which employs about 4,000 people assembling the Ford Escape and Lincoln Corsair. Dunn said he supports the decision to temporarily shut down.

“They’re going to come in and try to clean as much as possible, deep clean areas,” he said. “Hard part is you can’t get everything.”

Toyota said in a statement that it will temporarily suspend production at all of its plants in North America from March 23rd to the 24th.

Toyota’s facility in Georgetown, Kentucky, is Toyota’s largest vehicle manufacturing plant in the world, and employs more than 8,000 people. The company also has a facility in Putnam County, West Virginia, which employs about 550 people. The manufacturing facility in Georgetown, Kentucky will also cancel Saturday production.

The temporary suspension of production will likely have significant ripple effects well beyond those directly employed, as dozens of regional companies supply parts and services for the automakers.

General Motors Workers In Martinsburg Strike For Nearly A Week

For nearly a week, 90 workers from the General Motors Martinsburg Distribution Center have been on the picket line demanding better pay and benefits, as well as an updated promotional system for new employees.

The Martinsburg General Motors Distribution Center employs a little more than 100 people. Ninety of those workers have been on the picket line since Sunday — joining other UAW members across the country. The Martinsburg facility is the only GM distribution center in West Virginia.

The entrance into the Martinsburg General Motors Distribution Center is along Caperton Boulevard.

Vanessa Banks is the president of the Local 1590 chapter of the UAW.

She said every four years GM negotiates a new contract to decide what pay, healthcare and other benefits will look like for its workers.

“We don’t know all of the details until they come up with a tentative agreement, and then we can go vote on it,” she said.

The latest GM-UAW contract ended last weekend on Sept. 14, 2019. Negotiations for an updated agreement have been ongoing since July.

Banks said she and her fellow union members plan to be on the picket line until an agreement is made.