Rochester GM plant could lose 600 jobs to another supplier, starting in 2021

Sarah Taddeo | Democrat and Chronicle

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Rochester's General Motors plant could lose 600 jobs, starting in 2021.

Manufacturing jobs for fuel rails and injectors will transfer to another supplier.

The jobs could stay local if GM finds other work for the affected employees.

Hundreds of jobs at Rochester’s General Motors plant could be in jeopardy as a major chunk of its manufacturing work will be transferred to a new supplier in 2021.

About 65 percent of the plant’s business consists of manufacturing fuel rails and injectors, which carry and pump fuel into engine cylinders in trucks and SUVs, said Todd Campanella, full-time shop chairman of UAW (United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America) Local 1097, representing about 866 hourly workers (essentially the full manufacturing workforce) at the GM Components Holdings plant on Lexington Avenue.

“The rails and injectors are what the company announced they are giving to an outside supplier now,” said Campanella, who said the company gathered the plant’s employees by shift last week to tell them the news.

The departure of these lines of work translates to about 600 positions potentially lost at the plant, he said.

GM jobs could stay with new work

General Motors spokesperson Mary Ann Brown said in an email Thursday that it's too early to determine the employment impact of the decision to award the next generation fuel systems production to an outside supplier.

But the plant has been gaining new business in areas like oil pans, manifolds and noise covers (all engine components), she said.

"The company will continue to pursue new opportunities as they become available," she said.

The jobs could stay in Rochester if GM finds other tasks for those workers, said Campanella, and service work to support the current products made at the plant will remain on site. But the news means that net job growth at the plant is unlikely in the coming years — “This is a huge setback to that,” he said.

“Even if we do find some more business in the next two years, it’s going to take a while to develop that and actually get it into the plant,” said Campanella. “This particular program was something that we had been counting on. We didn’t see the Gen 5 engine fuel work going anywhere anytime soon. This was a surprise.”

While the potential of a 600-job loss in the coming years isn’t catastrophic to the overall Rochester economy, automotive manufacturing jobs are valuable because they’re typically on the higher end of the pay scale, and employ a variety of skill levels, said Lee Koslow, technical assistance and training manager at RochesterWorks.

But transportation and machinery manufacturing is declining in the area, he said. While other fields, such as optics, are looking for workers who have technical or manufacturing skills, it may be difficult for middle-aged workers transitioning to a new job to carry over their previous wage.

“For a younger worker, the opportunities are a little bit better, because you’re looking at a career path that’ll eventually lead you to where you want to be,” he said.

Rochester’s “middle skills gap,” in which there are fewer qualified middle skills candidates looking for work then there are jobs available, still remains, and more positions may open up overall as baby boomers head into retirement. The onus is on employers to make these open jobs attractive to skilled potential candidates who may be leaving a place like GM, said Koslow.

“The difficult part is going to be being able to match them to a job that balances out their need to get trained and their need to try and replace their earnings,” he said.

The injector/fuel rail manufacturing work at GM came in a 2007 deal, when the plant was still owned by Delphi Corp., which spun off from GM in 1999. Delphi eventually went bankrupt and GM bought the plant in 2009, along with three other plants around the U.S., under a wholly-owned subsidiary, General Motors Components Holdings.

There isn’t much the local union can do about this decision at this point, other than bring up the question of future work for union employees at the contract negotiation table next year, said Campanella.

But he’s optimistic about finding new tasks for them, given the quality and expertise among the plant's workforce.

“They should want to be able to do work in our plant,” he said. “The question is whether (the company) wants to help us get more work.”

STADDEO@Gannett.com