Standard Motors has named a new UAW labor negotiator as longtime labor manager Scott Sandefur moves to a new position.
Doneen McDowell, 50, replaced Sandefur, 58, as vice president of Typical Motors North America Labor Relations efficient Monday.
McDowell is now the executive director for production SUV and Car or truck Group. Sandefur will acquire in excess of a new purpose as vice president of Manufacturing Workforce Strategy until he retires.
McDowell is the fourth woman to direct GM labor relations. Diana Tremblay was a person of the most noteworthy latest females to do so from 2006 by way of 2009. She negotiated the historic 2007 agreement that made the VEBA, which is a UAW managed hourly retiree health and fitness care fund.
UAW’s major GM negotiator, Terry Dittes, stated Sandefur was a person of “integrity.”
“We want to wish Scott Sandefur the ideal of luck in his new role and his retirement in 2021,” Dittes, vice president and director of the UAW’s Common Motors Section, reported in a assertion. “Scott is a person of integrity and believability. We noticed difficulties concerning GM and the UAW differently many times although performing alongside one another. During individuals time of disagreements, he did not compromise his values or reliability whilst carrying out his obligations.”
McDowell started out operating as an EDS deal industrial engineer at Lordstown Assembly Plant in 1993. 4 many years afterwards, she joined GM in the Metal Fabrication Division Industrial Engineering Team, GM explained in a statement. In excess of the upcoming 20 years, she worked in numerous factories in several features which include source chain and engineering and functions. She’s held management jobs in assembly, stamping and propulsion.
“Doneen’s enthusiasm for worker engagement, her motivation to our GM behaviors, as very well as her continual generate to supply business enterprise success will place her nicely to guide the Labor Relations workforce as we support remodel and get ready for GM’s all-electric powered future,” explained Phil Kienle, GM North The us vice president of Manufacturing and Labor Relations.
Sandefur joined GM in 1986 and he has held many production, labor relations and human assets positions with raising duty more than the many years in various GM functions. These include Packard Electrical, Saginaw Metal Castings and Arlington Assembly in Texas the place GM will make its complete-sized SUVs.
“Scott has been instrumental in the good results of a dozen national negotiations and various neighborhood and specific negotiations with GM’s lots of unions,” Kienle reported.
In the tumble of 2019, some 48,000 UAW customers went on a 40-day strike towards GM, in component in excess of the automaker’s decision to close four plants in the United States. Dittes sat across from Sandefur when the two negotiated to save Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly, now termed Factory ZERO, from closure. GM is investing $2.2 billion to retool that plant to make all-electric powered cars starting off with the 2022 GMC Hummer EV pickup afterwards this yr.
In his new position, Sandefur will operate on a way to boost the contributions of human relations and labor professionals in the vegetation. He will also head tasks, this kind of as the We Are GM knowledge. That’s an inside method aimed to train GM personnel about the firm’s business strategy and very long-term goals.
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(This tale has been modified to make clear that McDowell is the fourth woman to lead GM’s labor negotiations.)
Call Jamie L. LaReau at 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Abide by her on Twitter @jlareauan. Browse much more on General Motors and indication up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.