
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 15, 1991                   TAG: 9102150130
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GE PLANT HAS BEST YEAR EVER/ WORKERS WARNED RECESSION MAY HIT

The General Electric Drive Systems plant in Salem has completed the best year in its 35-year history under new managers who are willing to work with employees, two workers said after a plantwide meeting Thursday.

They heard, however, predictions that the plant may feel impacts of the recession in coming months.

Many of the 2,000 employees of the plant met at the Salem Civic Center for operation's annual business review. The 90-minute program featured video presentations of nine employee teams. The plant makes controls for ships and heavy industry.

Under the new voluntary team concept, "for the first time, rank-and-file employees are taking a different attitude," said Diane Smith, a 25-year wire and assembly employee and a union officer.

The plant's general manager, Thomas Brock, and its manufacturing manager, George Joeckel, have recognized employees, and they are allowing people to make decisions, she said. Brock took over as manager a year ago.

Dennis Flannagan, an inspector for government business operations, said, "Things are better now. Management is more willing to work with people, to use our opinions and skills than the old management."

Flannagan, also a member of the International Union of Electronic Workers, said the company reported its best year at the review.

Under the new team plan, he said, the company gives dinners and cash awards to teams who accumulate the most points toward their goals. Flannagan's government business operations team, "close to the top" in team competition, found ways to increase productivity, lower overtime and better meet government specifications for tool calibration.

Brock told the meeting the plant may face problems in the third and fourth quarters because of the recession, but he said he's confident that "what we're doing will increase productivity with fewer people and we'll weather anything that comes along," Smith said.

"They'll do anything to avoid layoffs," she added.

Negotiations for renewal of the union's three-year contract with GE start in May to renew the agreement that expires in June. "Both sides will go to extraordinary lengths to see that a strike won't happen," Smith said.

by CNB