Tag Archives: GM Components Holdings

Activities, tours planned at GM plant as part of Metro Cruise

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By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
WKTV Managing Editor
joanne@wktv.org

A vehicle that once showcased the future of cars and technology will be just one of several to be featured at a special 75th celebration event at the Wyoming GM-Components Holdings LLC located at 2100 Burlingame Ave. SW.

Joining forces with the 17th annual 28th Street Metro Cruise, the GM plant decided to host its 75th celebration in conjunction with the annual event. Signs will help direct Metro Cruise participants to the plant which has a day packed with activities.

Of course, one of those activities will be a car show featuring the Futurliner  No. 10, a red-and-white bus that is part of the collection of the National Automotive and Truck Museum, which is based in Auburn, Indiana. The Futurliners, there was 12 at onetime, were first manufactured as part of the 1939 New York World’s Fair and later featured in GM;s Parade Progress, a promotional caravan traveling a 150-stop route across the United States and Canada. 

The vehicles were in operation up until the mid-1950s and served in other capacities after that. In the case of the Futurliner No. 10, which is only one of nine known to be in existence, it was sold to Detroit’s Goebel Brewing company, and was renamed the “Goebel Land Cruiser.” 

Also at the show will be the GM Pride car, which is a custom Cadillac  CT5 that features a wrap of the Pride colors. The car was featured this year at the 50th anniversary of the Detroit Pride Parade.

There also will be a display of GM’s Journey to Zero Emissions featuring a few of the company’s electric cars.

Starting at noon, visitors will have the opportunity to head inside the plant for tours along with demonstrations from five local robotic teams, all of which are sponsored by GM, and a robotic demonstration by the plant’s engineering team that will be handing out some sweet treats.

In addition to the tours, the plant will also be holding a Jobs Fair. Any one interested in exploring employment at the plant can check in at the Security window in the lobby. You will be directed to the on-site Human Resource representatives who will help you through the application process.

Rounding out the day’s activities will be food trucks, children’s activities, other GM displays, and John Ball Zoo programs.

While the GM Corporate Giving has presented it’s grant awards each year at the Metro Cruise (and will again at the Rogers Plaza stage on Saturday morning), this is the first year GM has been the official headline sponsor. A company representative said this is “definitely very exciting and should be a great time. We are thrilled to be able to invite the community in.”

GM workers were ‘surviving’ on pay, hoping for better

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Governor Gretchen Whitmer meets up with UAW Local 169 President Willie Holmes. (Video by WKTV)



By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org


Donte Granison, of Wyoming, easily admits that being part of the GM family was just in his blood, after all he comes from a family of GM workers.

“It was just something that was rooted in me,” Granison said. “I just felt I needed to try it at least.”

Chad Fox, a UAW Local 167 member (Photo by WKTV)

So he left his $20-plus an hour job at Steelcase to work at Wyoming’s GM Components Holdings as a temporary worker making $15.62.

“It was tough but I live with my fiancé, who also works, so we are able to split the bills,” Granison said. 

Chad Fox, of Grand Rapids, had no interest in returning to the auto industry. He had been on the bargaining team that had to negotiate the closing of a Lear Corp plant, so Fox admitted he had just moved on.

But friends and colleagues encouraged Fox to return, so he too joined the ranks of the temporary employees at the GM Components Holdings.

“It took longer than it should,” said Fox of his finally becoming a full-time GM employee. “I really didn’t think it would take that long because at first they took 50 but then the numbers started shrinking to 10, then 6, then 4.”

UAW Local 167 member Myron Brewer talks to Governor Gretchen Whitmer about the plight of the GM worker. (Video by WKTV)



With no guarantee on when they might get hired in as full-time employees, both Granison and Fox worked as many hours as they could to make ends meet. Granison said he worked 12 hours a day, juggling family responsibilities and schedules with his fiancé. 

“She works in the evening, so I was able to add a couple of hours before I had to be home,” Granison said. “It’s a lot of coming and going and working on weekends, but you do what you have to survive.”

“I was working seven days a week, 12 hours a day,” Fox said. “There were weeks that I would put in 78 hours but most of the time it was 65-75 hours a week.”

After waiting a year to be hired in, Granison said he only received an .82 per hour raise, bringing his hourly wage to just more than half the estimated livable hourly wage that a family of four in Kent County needs, according to the United Way’s ALICE (Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed, Simply) According to ALICE, for Kent County, the needed livable hourly wage is $32.39 for a family of four. It is $10.81 for a single adult.

For the past four weeks, both men have been surviving on $250 in strike pay, about 38 percent of their weekly salary, which Donate said has helped to cover the basics, food, shelter, etc.

“My daughter was doing gymnastics which was $70 and we had to cut that out,” Donate said. “We also had one in band, learning different instruments and one in swimming, which was $60-$70, but we can’t afford that right now.”

UAW Local 167 president Willie Holmes and bargaining chair Martin Wood. (Photo by WKTV)

On Oct. 13, the UAW increased strike pay to $275 per week — workers at the GM Components Holdings receive the strike pay if they walk the line at least one-day a week — and allowed for strikers to get part-time jobs that would not have any impact on their strike pay. Before, workers receiving $250 a week in strike pay and could not receive more in part-time pay than the strike pay amount. 

The relief from UAW about part-time work comes as good news for both Fox and Granison. Both men have considered part-time work especially if the strike continues.

There was more good news as according to reports GM and the UAW have been working intensely in negotiations with numerous UAW leaders called to meet in Detroit on Thursday. GM officials have stated that “We continue to negotiate and change proposals, and it remains our goal to reach an agreement that builds a stronger future for our employees and our company.” For more information, visit the company’s website, buildingastrongerfuture.gm.com.


Local businesses feel little from GM strike, but economist warns if it continues the economy could dip

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UAW Local 167 have been on strike for about a month. (Photo credit: WKTV)

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

Despite his own business wows with an electric bill at around $20,000, Mitten Pizza owner Jamie Zichterman did not blink an eye when it came to donating pizzas to the UAW Local 167.

“I think it was just the right thing to do,” Zichterman said. “Regardless of what type of issues we were facing, it was just something that we needed to.”

About 46,000 GM employees went on strike Sept. 15 which included 650 employees from Wyoming’s GM Holdings Components LCC, a subsidiary company of GM that makes auto parts.

The Mitten Pizza is located in Middleville with the nearest GM facility being the Wyoming plant. Because of the distance, the strike will have minimal impact on his business, Zicterman said, adding that he has seen an uptick in business that he credits to the amount of publicity he has had over his surprise electric bill of about $20,000 from Great Lakes Energy. Zichterman is currently trying to settle the bill with friends establishing a GoFundMe page to help pay it.

“What was surprising was to see the people coming in with UAW shirts buying pizzas and donating like crazy to the cause,” Zichterman said. “It shows if you do the right thing, good things will happen.”

Marilyn Free, manager of Marge’s Donut Den, said the Wyoming donut shop has not been impacted much by the strike either. 

“Other than people stopping to pick up donuts for those striking, no we have not seen anything,” Free said, adding that people have been purchasing three to four dozen donuts at a time along with coffee to go.

Brian Long is a local business forecaster. (Photo credit: GVSU)

Brian Long, director of Supply Management Research at Grand Valley State University’s Seidman College of Business, said in his monthly economics report, he is not surprised that there has not been much impact felt from the strike at this point since most of the local firms and businesses have diversified their customer bases.

“None of the firms in our survey is exclusively GM which was not the case from 20 years ago,” Long said. “Two of the firms I talked to indicated that they are actually stockpiling for GM. They figure that when GM does come out of this strike there is going to be a huge build up demand and they are going to need the parts that they are producing. However if this drags on for too long we may see some marginal layoffs.”

Long said regardless of the strike, the whole auto industry has been slowing down for 2019 with it being down about 1.6 percent on sales.

The Wyoming GM Components Holdings LLC has been building precision machined automotive components for almost 70 years. The plant makes such parts as lifters and the axle for full-size trucks. WKTV did contact a couple of local suppliers with one indicating that despite the warning on the GM Parts webpage about a delay in getting parts, they were able to continue fulfilling orders.

Todd Bartrand, owner of Wyoming’s Bob and Dave’s Garage, which like many similar independent garages purchase parts from suppliers and not directly from GM, indicated his business has not been impacted by the strike, yet.

“So far, so good,” Bartrand said. “I guess if it does not get resolved soon we might feel it, but for right now, we have not noticed anything.”

Congressmen Bill Huizenga (R) in a recent interview with Fox Business said he has reached out to a number of suppliers that supply GM. 

“Our suppliers are kind of mixed. Some of them are really afraid as they have slowed down and had to lay people off voluntarily that they may not be able to keep doing that voluntarily and they would have to do layoffs,” Huizenga said, adding that there is some concern that these employees would seek employment in other industries.

The strike is now four weeks old. UAW officials have stated that issues have been temporary employees becoming full-time GM workers, wages, pensions, and job security.

A GM spokesperson said “We continue to negotiate and exchange proposals, and it remains our goal to reach an agreement that builds a stronger future for our employees and our company.” For more information, visit the company’s website, buildingastrongerfuture.gm.com.

Three non-profits that service the Wyoming/ Kentwood communities get a little thanks in the form of a GM grant

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GM Components Holdings Planet Manager Troy Comiskey (far left) and UAW Local 167 Bargaining Chair Martin Wood (far right) presented $30,000 in GM Community Impact Grants at the 28th Street Metro Cruise. (WKTV)

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

As plant manager of Wyoming’s GM Components Holdings, Troy Comiskey can tell you a lot about the facility located at 2100 Burlingame Ave. SW, such as the plant added 330 new jobs last year when it opened its axle department last year.

But the highlights for Comiskey, who has been with the plant for about a year, is the dedication the team has to helping better its community.

“Last year, for the mayor’s river clean-up, we filled a bus with volunteers who worked on both the Buck Creek and the Grand River,” Comiskey said.

Martin Wood, the bargaining chair for Local 167, the union that represents many of the employees at GM Components Holdings, said the team at the plant has had a long history of giving back to its community.

“The members of Local 167 do a lot in the community from working with robotics programs to helping collect school supplies for area schools,” Wood said. “Today it is just great to be highlighting some of the organizations that we work with that give back to our community.”

On Aug. 24, Comiskey and Wood were at the 2019 Metro Cruise to present $30,000 in GM Community Impact Grants, funded by GM Corporate Giving, to three organizations that provide services to the Wyoming and Kentwood communities. The organizations, each receiving $10,000, were the Greater Wyoming Community Resource Alliance, West Michigan Environmental Action Council (WMEAC), and Kids Food Basket.

“Last year, we were able to use the money to bring in the distracted driving simulator to two different high schools,” said the City of Wyoming Chief Kim Koster, who received the check for the Greater Wyoming Community Resource Alliance. The Greater Wyoming Community Resource Alliance has received money from the GM Corporate Giving program for the past several years.

“This year we are planning to purchase several portable speed detectors,” Koster said, adding that these detectors have been helpful in monitoring speeds on local roads.

“They provide a way for drivers to self monitor how fast they are going,” she said. “They have proven to be very efficient in that a driver is able to see the speed they are going and self adjust. They see they are exceeding the limit and slowdown.”

Koster said how many monitors would be purchased and where they would be located still had to be determined.

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Another organization that has received GM Community Impact Grants in the past is WMEAC. The organization uses the funds to support its Teach for the Watershed at Godfrey Lee Public Schools. The program is a hands-on opportunity for students in kindergarten through sixth grade to learn about their watershed, storm water contamination, and what the students can do to prevent pollution. The funs also helped to support WMEAC’s Annual Mayors’ Grand River Cleanup, the largest annual river clean up in Michigan. 

Receiving its first GM Community Impact Grant was the Kids Food Basket, which provides sack suppers to at-risk children who are in food-insecure households. Kids Food Basket provides meal to children who attend schools in the cities of Kentwood and Wyoming.

The GM Community Impact Grants program this year will provide nearly $2.3 million in funding to hundreds of organizations in 47 communities where GM employed live and work. Of that amount, $30,000 was awarded to the GM Components Holdings LLC in Wyoming to give to local organizations.