New Engine Plant Marks a New Deal For Auto Industry

Dave Morse, left, Don Kingery and Kathy Straub examine the new engine plant in August, before it opened. (By Gary Malerba For The Washington Post)

DUNDEE, Mich. -- Many members of Dave Morse's family spent their lives in manufacturing. So when he graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Michigan in April 2004, his family tried to steer him in another direction. Manufacturing in the United States is disappearing, they told him. It's not a stable life. He could do "new economy" things with that degree.

But Morse took a job at a new engine plant in the small town of Dundee, southwest of Detroit, anyway. "This is definitely a turnaround from the stories I've heard," he said in late August as he strolled through the massive plant wearing the same black-and-white uniform everyone -- including the company's president -- wears.

His workplace is the Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance, or GEMA, a joint venture among DaimlerChrysler AG, Hyundai Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. designed to be dramatically different from traditional auto and parts plants. Here, old labor rules that restricted workers to one -- and only one -- job, that designated work on either day or night shifts, and that required employees to plow through lines of management to fix a problem were tossed out like an old, rusty carburetor.

The alliance is no little experiment.

At a time when General Motors Corp. and its largest supplier, Delphi Corp., are demanding wage cuts, implementing massive layoffs and announcing plant closures, GEMA has formed what some say could be a new pattern of bargaining and collaboration between automakers and the United Auto Workers union.

It is the sort of deal that could help the union and companies avert a clash similar to the current one at Delphi. Delphi's chief executive, Robert S. Miller Jr., demanded that UAW workers' pay and benefits be slashed after the partsmaker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October. The UAW is fighting the demands.

GEMA, which opened in October, "is betting on cooperation with a union to succeed," said Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

Morse's faith and hope in the new plant match that of state officials; the UAW; and, of course, the companies, which think a more flexible work arrangement could increase productivity and ensure the plant's success against the implosion of manufacturing.

"The old 'it's not in my job description' phrase is not valid in the 21st century," said Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm (D), a major proponent of the agreement. "In the 21st century, everyone sees flexibility is critical to achieve cost savings and a changing workforce."

"This is a revolutionary breakthrough for auto manufacturing, for relationships between the union and management. It puts the UAW in the position of being a broker of good skills," she said.

A national agreement with DaimlerChrysler means that covered employees at GEMA receive the same pensions, wages and benefits as at other plants.

Union leaders have bought into the need to change work rules.