The impact: Long strike could hurt local businesses
(Published Monday, September 24, 2007 12:14:11 PM CST)
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
By Stacy Vogel svogel@gazetteextra.com
A General Motors strike can have a significant impact on business, especially if it's drawn out, local business people said today.
The local Lear Corp. plant counts the Janesville GM plant as its biggest customer, said Mike Vaughn, shop committee chairman for Lear's unit in UAW Local 95.
Although the Lear plant is part of United Auto Workers, employees will not go on strike with GM workers, Vaughn said.
But most of Lear's 780 hourly workers probably will be laid off for the duration of the strike, he said.
"We basically would be shut down," he said this morning.
Minutes after this morning's walkout at the Janesville GM plant, UAW member Mike Hanlon had joined others in walking a picket line outside the facility.
Bill Olmsted/Gazette Staff
As Vaughn understands it, the laid-off workers would collect unemployment during the strike, though it's possible about 20 skilled maintenance workers could continue doing jobs for other customers, he said.
Randy Borman, co-owner of local real estate company Coldwell Banker Success, said uncertainty surrounding the GM contract already has affected housing sales in the area.
Company sales dipped 10 to 15 percent in August, Borman said. He attributes some of that to a nationwide housing market crisis but said anticipation of a possible GM strike has had an effect, too.
"It's not been a huge (drop), but a little bit of a slowdown in August we noticed, and some of that is attributable, I think, to the concerns out there," he said.
He doesn't expect the strike to immediately depress sales because people already have been cautious. But if the strike drags on, it could affect October sales, he said.
"If they can reach a settlement fairly early on, I don't think we'll see much of a change in the market," he said.
A short strike actually could be good for business at Harris Ace Hardware stores, partner Dave Riemer said. The company has two stores in Janesville and four total in Rock County.
"What we've found is actually sometimes business will increase because (GM employees) are home, now, and probably getting some of those projects done that they wouldn't have time to do," he said.
"Of course, if it were to drag on and be a long-term situation, it could have the opposite effects on us."
Doug Venable, Janesville's economic development director, said it's too early to say how a strike will affect the area's economy. Factors will include strikers' benefits and the length of the strike, he said.
Reporter Marcia Nelesen contributed to this story.
