Staff Reporter The Herald Bulletin United Auto Workers Local 662 and its Region 3 office filed suit against Delco Remy America and Delco Remy International Wednesday because it wants the auto parts manufacturing company to make good on an agreement.
The union, representing 350 former DRA workers, wants to collect approximately $20 million it feels members were owed as supplemental unemployment benefits. The benefits were included in a 1997 collective bargaining agreement between the company and UAW. DRA eliminated 350 hourly wage jobs when it closed down its Anderson plants March 31. The jobs went to DRI plants in Mexico, Korea and Hungary.
Terry Thurman, president of UAW Region 3, which represents Indiana and Kentucky, said the SUB agreement was included in the most recent union contract with DRA and patterned after a 1997 agreement between UAW and General Motors. Thurman said the DRA agreement provides employees with SUB pay and health insurance for a year, totaling about $11 million. After a year, the rest of the $20 million SUB money should be divided into separation payments of $25,000 to each of the 350 employees, Thurman said. Employees are due to receive three months of SUB pay and health benefits.
"Delco Remy America, Delco Remy International has broken a covenant in my opinion, in the city of Anderson in the state of Indiana that we represent," Thurman said. "They've mismanaged that business into the ground, they've ran off shore, they've taken good-paying jobs and moved them overseas, all at the expense of working families in this community in this state."
Thurman said the lawsuit was filed Wednesday because, during plant shutdown negotiations, United Auto Workers wanted the SUB agreement to be honored. According to Thurman, Delco Remy said the SUB fund is a paper fund and only existed as long as employees were there. Thurman also said DRA is saying the 350 employees were terminated, instead of laid off, which nullifies the SUB safety net.
But Thurman said similar agreements with GM and Delphi are usually honored. The UAW, he noted, made it clear that if nothing was resolved a lawsuit would be filed.
"Apparently they thought they could walk all over our members and walk all over this union, and not have anything done about it."
Union attorney Barry Macey of Indianapolis said now that the lawsuit, which was filed in United States District Court, Southern District office in Indianapolis, will be sent to DRA. After that, the company will file an answer to the union's suit. He said there is an ongoing effort in Indiana to get cases to trial between 18 months and two years after filing.
"Litigation is long," Macey said.
But he said that will not make any settlement a moot issue. "Because the money is there, and we're entitled to interest on that money as the time goes by."
Thurman said this is the first time the union has filed a lawsuit of this type. He said the union has gone to court over other matters such as insurance termination and the like, but nothing like this.
"We're not in the habit of filing frivolous lawsuits," Thurman said. "If we didn't think we had a good, strong case here, we certainly wouldn't have filed the lawsuit."
Leah Campbell, communications specialist for DRA in the Flagship office, declined to comment on the matter.
"We have not yet seen the actual lawsuit so we are not prepared to comment on it at this time," she said.
Campbell did not know when the company would receive the papers to be able to comment.
Thurman said this lawsuit is not going to go away until the union is satisfied.
"We've got documentation to support (our claim), we've got history on our side and we intend to see this thing through."
Permission for repost obtained from Lisa Allen Content Editor
