LORDSTOWN - When Violet Click was hired at General Motors' Lordstown plant 32 years ago, she made $2 an hour.
The Farmington woman makes a lot more these days, but the physical labor has led to back and carpal tunnel surgeries. She pays more for health care and, under the current contract, will get the first raise - beyond cost of living - in eight years.
After United Auto Workers officials said Wednesday they would revisit their contract to help the struggling automaker, Click and other GM workers said they'd be willing, on most fronts, to bite the bullet to keep their jobs, as long as it doesn't involve deep cuts to their pay.
"It depends," said Click outside the plant Wednesday. "If they want $10 an hour salary cut, no. The majority of people out here wouldn't. We're hoping things will turn around."
Al Kovach, a 30-year worker at the company, said workers have continually already accepted concessions through the years. But Kovach, of Poland, would be willing to take more to keep his job and hopes they won't deeply affect his salary.
"I think we've given up some concessions, but it obviously wasn't enough," he said. "I'm all up for it when it comes to helping the company. I'd rather have a job with my pay cut ... than not have a job."
But any further concessions should be for workers in all brackets, he said outside the Lordstown site.
"They should be across the board," he said, adding if worse comes to worst, he'll retire and get a part-time job.
Lordstown workers will do what they can to help GM - within reason, local union leaders said as they returned from a special UAW meeting in Detroit to address GM's cash crunch.
''I think the members know the importance of what's going on,'' said Jim Graham, president of Local 1112 that represents 3,400 workers at the Lordstown assembly plant. ''The biggest thing is getting the loan next week. Then the International will sit down and see if it can squeeze more money from the contract.''
International UAW leaders said they would forgo the controversial jobs bank - an arrangement agreed to years ago by automakers to pay workers nearly all their wages while laid off - and delay GM's payment into a special fund to cover retiree health care.
The union also said it would consider other changes in the national agreement. Members might have to vote on some changes, while other areas could be changed without a vote, Graham said.
''There's language in the national agreement where they can tweak a paragraph or an appendix, and it doesn't have to be ratified, but I don't know what they're talking about at this point,'' he said.
Dave Green, president of the 1,100 worker United Auto Workers Local 1714 of the Lordstown Metal Center plant, said his members ''have continually stepped up to the plate and recognized tough issues.''
But, he said, many workers draw the line at giving up wages and benefits, something he said would create hardships for entire communities, not just workers.
''People have built their lives around that wage,'' he said of the average $28 an hour autoworkers make. ''To take that away would be detrimental not only to them and their families but to communities because we'd be less consumers.''
Green said a UAW-hired analysis firm determined GM would be forced into bankruptcy by year's end without the $18 billion loan, $4 billion of which is needed this month.
''We cannot let that happen,'' he said, pointing out that GM wouldn't be able to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy but would be forced to go to Chapter 7 liquidation, in which the 100-year-old company would be sold off.
Area labor analyst John Russo, co-director of Youngstown State University's Center for Working-Class Studies, said plant-by-plant specifics are unknown, possibly opening the door for factories that survive pending cuts to compete against each other for products.
''The question many autoworkers are asking is, since GM is closing some plants, will individual plants be whipsawed in terms of taking more work rules and concessions?'' he said.
Russo expects Congress to approve the Big 3 loans but said the real hurdle remains lack of demand for vehicles due to the failing economy, which this week was officially said to be in recession.
Click said no matter what happens, she wishes more of the public would recognize what workers have already given up and offer more support for workers when it comes to their concessions.
"The people out there have no idea what we've given up," said Click. "We have, every time, taken concessions. We do make good money, but we work."
