#orion

That didn’t take long, did it? In a Friday morning announcement, General Motors said it plans to bring a second electric product to the Orion Assembly plant in suburban Detroit, home to the Chevrolet Bolt.

Forget Buick and Cadillac, too. This Bolt-based product is destined to carry the bowtie badge.

[UPDATE: Automotive News [sub] reports that Linc workers voted “overwhelmingly” to authorize a strike, noting

With the strike authorization, the local can send notice to LINC that workers could strike after five business days if progress isn’t made toward a contract.

Ninety-eight percent of the 88 workers who voted yesterday agreed to authorize a strike, a representative at the union hall said this morning.

We’ve been watching the drama at GM’s Lake Orion plant unfold for some time now, as an “ innovative labor practices” agreement between the UAW, GM and the government has already drawn UAW protests and NLRB complaints, as well as increased backlash against the union’s two-tier wage structure. Thus far GM had been able to prevent Tier One workers from being forced into the second tier, by shuffling them off to the Flint HD pickup plant. But with GM’s truck inventory soaring to “Old GM” levels, Flint is being idled, and those “Tier One Gypsies” are once again facing the choice between moving to some other plant or accepting a 50% paycut to return to Orion. And now, another labor issue is raising its ugly head, as Crainsdetroit reports that

About 125 workers for a critical supplier [Linc Logistics] inside the General Motors Co. Orion Assembly Plant are taking a strike authorization vote today as a means of accelerating contract talks.

The UAW is getting an interesting lecture: Ownership of a car manufacturer entails delicate handling of labor relations. As Ed had reminded us so rightly: “Pre-bankruptcy, GM didn’t have to deal with the fact that the UAW is incapable of building fuel-efficient subcompact cars profitably. But now that the General has promised to build the next-gen Aveo in Michigan’s Orion Township plant in exchange for nearly $800m in local tax credits (not to mention the political benefits of “saving or creating” hundreds of union jobs), it’s up to the UAW to square the circle and make the damn thing profitable.”

And now, the UAW gets a taste of how it is when the working masses protest in front of your building: “About 100 General Motors Co workers and retirees picketed outside the United Auto Workers union’s headquarters on Saturday to protest plans to build a new small car with low-wage workers,” reports Reuters. They didn’t picket RenCen. They didn’t picket the Orion plant. They picketed their own union.