Back to Work! Arlington's GM Employees Ready
By OMAR VILLAFRANCA and LITA BECK
Updated 8:51 PM CST, Mon, Jul 13, 2009
The 2,400 workers at Arlington's General Motors assembly plant say they are glad to head back to work this week.
The workers had been out of work for several weeks while GM filed for bankruptcy and reorganized.
The paint and body shop reopened Monday, and workers there said it was good to be back.
Robert Neel said he was "getting tired of sitting at home," and Ted Manuel said it's good to "get a check."
The rest of the workers will show up to work on Tuesday. The sport utility will start coming off the assembly lines later this week.
Arlington resident Elia Carrillo said she's glad to get back to work after closely monitoring the news on the company. Carrillo said she was stressed out during the forced vacation and frequently checked in with her union bosses.
"It's very hard," she said. "It's very stressful. With today's economy, it's very unstable. You don't know if the eight weeks is going to turn in 12 or 14, and it's very hard."
GM employees will move to four 10-hour days instead of a five-day work week sometime this fall to save the automaker cash.
"The assembly line runs fast," said Enrique Flores Jr., president of United Auto Workers Local 276. "It's hard, (and) in some places, it's very dirty, very heavy, so being in that place 10 hours doing competitive work -- it will be hard."
But employees such as Marie Haywood say at this point, it's all about having a job.
"We don't have a choice, so I'll do what I have to do," she said.
First Published: Jul 12, 2009 7:05 PM CST
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