Corvette Assembly Plant Avoids Major Shutdown with New Labor Agreement for Temporary Employees

By
Keith Cornett
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5
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Corvette Assembly Plant Avoids Major Shutdown with New Labor Agreement for Temporary Employees

Photo Credit: Keith Cornett


When we think of outside forces causing the Corvette Assembly Plant to reduce production, our minds automatically think that it’s a supply chain issue. After all, we just had another week with supply issues causing the plant to pause production during the 2nd shift of Tuesday, all day Wednesday, and 1st shift on Thursday. However, there was apparently another issue happening in the background at BGAP last week that could have canceled the 2nd shift of production altogether, which would be catastrophic to production of America’s favorite sports car.

We got the news from our friend Rick Conti who posted a news update this morning on his YouTube Channel. In the video, we learn that the plant’s management team has been negotiating with the plant’s temporary employees over a new labor contract. The deadline to reach that agreement was 2:30 PM on Friday afternoon. Unless labor agreed to the new resolution, the plant would have been forced to release those temporary workers. Without the temporary workers, the second shift employees would be moved to the first shift, and the second shift would be temporarily laid off starting Monday! Those workers still at the plant would have also been subjected to mandatory maximum overtime rules to keep critical functions at the plant going.

Lucky for us, the plant’s management and the local UAW leadership were able to secure a quarterly agreement that maintains the temporary workforce at the Assembly Plant. Rick had an official statement he read on his video, which said the following:

Plant leadership has been actively working with local union leadership to secure the quarterly agreement that maintains our temporary Workforce, which is comprised of valued team members that are critical to the success of our plant. We have been bargaining in good faith and are pleased to share that we have come to an agreement with a local union to keep all temporary employees. We realize the uncertainty today, especially during the holiday season, has been difficult on the entire Workforce. Thanks to all of our employees for your understanding and patience during this time. Take some time to relax this weekend. Monday’s production will continue as per usual schedule for All Temporary and seniority employees. Thank you. Bowling Green Assembly Team.”


A labor shutdown would have been one of the worst things that could come at this time, so we are glad that cooler heads prevailed. The C8 Corvette was in the process of launching in December 2019 just as the UAW held a nationwide strike against General Motors. The strike closed the Corvette Assembly facility for nearly five weeks, and the delay pushed the start of C8 Corvette production to February 2020.


Source:
Rick Conti / YouTube

Related:
Corvette Assembly Plant Suffers Partial Shutdown This Week Over Parts Supplies
Corvette Assembly Plant To Run Both Shifts This Saturday
Corvette Stingray/Z06 Production Update for October 2022

 



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5 COMMENTS

  2. Ain’t that just like politicians, getting the priorities out of order… The Pres deals with toy trains while the Corvette Factory is about to close. Oh my , what is this world becoming.

  3. Can you say Zimbabwe? Oh inflation is only transitory. It feeds on itself. It ends when they run out of other people’s money. Glad I bought my Corvette during more normal times.

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