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MORAINE — Jim Clark, president of the International Union of Electronic Workers-Communication Workers of America, arrived at his union's Dryden Road Joint Activities Center one morning last week with much on his mind:

• General Motors Corp. had just announced that it was recalling 1,200 first-shift production workers to the SUV assembly plant straddling Stroop Road, ending — at least for those workers — a 10-week layoff.

Even though the United Auto Workers strike against American Axle & Manufacturing in Michigan and New York continued, GM had still been able to obtain the axles it needed to resume at least one shift of production at the local plant.

• Talks on a VEBA — a Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association — were set to resume in New York between representatives of GM and the IUE-CWA. At this writing, talks were to pick up either late last week or early this week.

In a VEBA, a union assumes responsibility for a tax-free health care trust fund, to which an employer contributes. The fund, which becomes the union's responsibility, is set up for current or retired workers.

The UAW agreed to a VEBA in its talks with GM last September. Now, GM expects the IUE-CWA — which represents only one GM plant, in Moraine — to embrace the same mechanism.

Clark said discussions on the larger, overall plant contract — which started last October — are "idling" while VEBA talks go forward. The question for Clark: Can a smaller union with fewer active workers — like the IUE-CWA — afford a VEBA?

• Meanwhile, the future of the GM-Moraine plant remains a question.

Clark stressed that reaching agreement on a VEBA will not guarantee the local GM plant a future. In fact, Clark said, GM's position hasn't changed since October.

"They don't have a product for that plant, and they continue to look," Clark said.

The current complement of vehicles made in Moraine — Chevrolet TrailBlazers, GMC Envoys, others — are set to be retired after 2010.

• Finally, the union plans to move its base from Washington, D.C., where it will continue to have lobbying representation, to Dayton.

A Dayton headquarters will be less expensive, Clark said, but he doesn't feel it will necessarily help the union in its fight to keep the GM-Moraine plant open.

"I'd like to tell you it would, but I don't think that would be accurate," Clark said.

Instead, the union is moving to bring staff members closer together, and to take advantage of Dayton's lower costs.

"It's expensive," Clark said of Washington, D.C. "You know, my office there overlooks the Capitol building."

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or

tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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