By: Jack Terrill

Greetings from NAETC,

As many are aware, we are in the midst of the second phase of the UAW/GM-negotiated Special Attrition Program (SAP). A package that was announced with a signing of the 2023 Agreement between parties.

At this time, I would like to announce that 25 of our members here at NAETC have elected to participate. Among the 25 who have opted in are Gary Boehnlein, the District 1 Committeeman and myself. We are both exiting on April 1, 2025. So, this will mark the second to last article I will submit.

This has been one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever faced. I came to the plant kicking and screaming thirty years ago. Along the way, shortly before I departed to Lansing, I was complaining to anyone who would listen about the injustice of the whole situation, fighting change as we love to do. One of my diemaker friends listened to me for a while, and then said “you never know, it might be the best thing that ever happened to you.” That was exactly what I needed to hear at that time, and it turns out he was right.

Moving to Flint Tool and Die became the catalyst for my career that I never would have envisioned in my dreams. The work, the people, the shop itself, and the community have all been more than I ever would have hoped.

I have always strived to make NAETC a viable site, and to this day we remain the last Tool and Die shop for GM in North America. I’m not taking credit. Many, many people deserve the credit, but none more than themembership.

Now, we enter the most grueling period of the lowest volume workload that we’ve experienced in thirty years. Due to the political climate, changing thoughts around the fleet, and money considerations, the corporation has canceled a good portion of our work for the next couple years.

While we would normally consider ourselves full with 10-12 die lines, for the most part of this year we will hover around 5. Towards September, it will jump to approximately 6. We were able to secure additional work, but most of that will land in 2026.

So, back to the viability of NAETC in the future. Soon, two members of the Shop Committee, a Doc 46 rep will be leaving, and we’ll have a new Personnel Director. All this on top of the most depleted workload we’ve seen in thirty years.

In my opinion, this is not the time to flood the Committeebody with inexperience. There will be one year left in both terms, and this is a perfect time for someone to gain experience in the role of Committeeperson, while supporting the person in the Chair position. This will also give the Chair time to mentor those people coming up, understand the changes that have taken place in the leadership roles, and better prepare themselves for their future helping to lead the facility. This is only my opinion. The membership must decided their fate.

What I am saying is that this is no time to be playing with fire. Two years ago, we all felt the pain when they brought in a South American to lead the facility. You do not want to risk your livelihood on inexperience.

There will be some precedent setting decisions that will need to be made soon and we will need stability to help guide us through. We need a Committeebody working together with the best interests of both the membership and the facility at the forefront.