From staff reports

More than 1,000 employees at the bankrupt Delphi Corp. plant in south Limestone County are eligible for early retirement benefits come June 5 and from all indications many of those workers will call it quits soon after that.

“June 5 is the last day they have to sign up for early retirement,” said UAW 2195 President Terry Sruggs, of Athens. “We’ve got over 1,000 workers eligible and many of them have already signed up.”

Delphi, which has said it has too many employees to operate profitably, has run help-wanted ads in The News Courier and other newspapers in the area to develop an applicant pool that the company could tap in the event too many leave the plant to accept the post-bankruptcy severance packages.

But others have said the ads may be a common, but drastic method of scaring unionized employees out of a strike.

The ad, with a large heading of “DELPHI” at the top, says the company has employment opportunities at the Limestone County plant. The ad seeks applications from production and machine operators for a job that pays $10 to $14 per hour. It also asks for applications from journeymen and electricians at hourly rates from $19.50 to $21.35.

Delphi now pays it production and machine operators from $22 to $28 per hour and journeymen and electricians are paid well over $30 to the hour.

Delphi went bankrupt last October and ever since that time the 2,200 employees at the Limestone County plant have been worried their jobs may be lost.

Those eligible for early retirement are employees over 50 with 25 years or more seniority.

Labor laws prohibit Delphi from hiring permanent replacement workers unless their employees go on strike.

Under the bankruptcy code, the employees can go on strike only in the event Delphi persuades the bankruptcy judge to reject the collective bargaining agreement.

The $10 to $14 per hour range was first proposed by Delphi officials earlier during talks prior to bankruptcy. But the union rejected that offer saying the proposal was absurb.