TodayIAC's future in limbo
Print
Share
Email to a friend
Add This
Article RatingThe long-term future of the International Automotive Components Group plant in Carlisle might not clear up for months.
An official with the Dearborn, Mich.-based auto parts supplier said Friday the company won't know how or if the Carlisle plant or any others will be impacted until after it closes a deal to buy 16 plants from bankrupt supplier Collins and Aikman.
“Our manufacturing footprint is still being developed,” said David Emerling, director of corporate development. “There's too much going on to finalize any of that right now.”
IAC just completed a joint venture for 26 former Lear Corp. plants, including 50 Spring Road in Carlisle, about six weeks ago, he said.
Local plant disposable?
Led by billionaire Wilbur Ross, IAC last month also announced plans to acquire 16 plants from C&A, raising questions about whether a move to add production capacity means the Carlisle facility could become disposable.
Emerling said the Collins and Aikman deal won't close for “many months.”
One step will involve securing the approval of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Michigan overseeing C&A's case.
That court is expected to decide June 5 whether to approve the sale to IAC, Detroit Free Press reported.
But for now, workers at the 50 Spring Road plant are “still in wait-and-see mode,” said Doug Carey, president of the UNITE-HERE Local 1739, representing most hourly workers.
Carey said that in local negotiations with Lear, the company told the union it must accept a wage and benefit cut of $7.65 per hour.
In subsequent talks, local union leadership proposed lesser cuts - such as trimming 78 cents from the company's figure - but the company's negotiators wouldn't budge, Carey said.
“It's not that we weren't willing to negotiate,” Carey said.
Pay has declined
Carey said workers' pay has come down over the past couple of years. He produced a Social Security document showing that his annual income dropped from more than $44,000 in 2003 to about $30,000 in 2005.
Emerling said he couldn't comment on specific negotiations, but he left the door open to further discussions with the union in the future.
IAC is negotiating with the unions at each of the 26 former Lear plants, including two in Canada and three in Mexico, he said.
“We're rotating through the plants,” he said. “What's going to happen with Carlisle has not been determined.”
Ross said last month that production likely would be consolidated to the least expensive plants, but warned that Carlisle is a “high-cost” plant.
Meanwhile, Emerling said the company is seeing some fluctuation in the workload at its plants, but new contracts are expected to bring in some work from Nissan and Chrysler. Both companies are launching new products later this year.
Carey said about four or five people are expected to return from layoff June 4 and tentative plans call for about 30 to 40 people to return over the summer.
James Kamsickas, former head of the interiors unit at Lear, has been named president and CEO of IAC North America, Emerling said.
Most of the former Lear management has stayed with the company throughout the switch to IAC, he said.
Emerling said that besides seeing new signs, most of the change in management will be transparent to the greater Carlisle community.
“We're really an old company with a new name,” he said.
