First shift to resume Monday at Delta plant
Melissa Domsic mdomsic@lsj.com
November 07, 2009 19:02 PM

A strike at a company in India that supplies parts to General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. and forced a local plant to halt production is over.

The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News reported Friday that a 45-day strike at Rico Auto Industries Ltd. ended Thursday night. Bloomberg said Rico plans to resume normal parts shipments to Detroit's GM and Dearborn-based Ford starting next week.

Tom Balogh, a spokesman for Clarkston-based Rico North America, the company's U.S. operation, declined to comment. But Surendra Singh Chaudhary, Rico's senior vice president in charge of human resources, told Bloomberg the company will resume full supplies to GM and Ford after workers agreed to end their strike.

GM, which idled its Lansing Delta Township plant this week, plans to bring back only the first shift on Monday and keep the second shift on standby, said spokeswoman Heidi Magyar.

"It takes a lot for parts to get through the pipeline, so as soon as we can we'll be calling the second shift back," Magyar said.

The Delta plant was idled because there were not enough of a part made by Rico that is used by GM's plant in Warren to build transmissions. GM never identified the part in question.

About 1,375 workers will return to their jobs Monday at the Delta plant, building Buick Enclave and GMC Acadia crossover vehicles.

But the plant's 1,200 second shift workers will remain idled.