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Tara Wasik’s career with General Motors started while she was still working on her mechanical engineering degree at the University at Buffalo.
She was an hourly employee at the Lockport components plant for three years before she graduated in 1999 and got a job at GM’s Tonawanda powertrain plant.
“I started out as a production group leader on one of our new engine launches — it was called the Elite 50,” Wasik said. “I’ve been able to do a couple of engine launches here, which is a fun thing to do. It’s starting from the ground up and building the processes and systems. So that’s always been a fun part of my job here.”
May will mark a big milestone month for Wasik, who will celebrate 25 years working at the General Motors powertrain plant in Tonawanda and one year as the plant’s general manager, overseeing its 1,000 employees.
“To start from a group leader position at this plant — but even an hourly employee within the corporation — and now to be the plant manager, it just feels surreal sometimes, when I sit back and take it all in,” she said. “It’s been a journey for me.”
Over her years at the plant, Wasik has taken on many roles in different departments at the plant, including assistant plant manager, where she ran day-to-day plant operations for about two years. She said her family is from Western New York, so it was important for her to stay in the area, for both personal and work reasons.
“My roots are very deep here,” she said. “Myself and my coworkers, we spend a lot of time here at the plant. You get to know a lot of people, and you develop a lot of great relationship over those years. So, I have a strong desire to see Tonawanda through. We’ve had different leaders come and go over the years, so it is sort of odd for someone to stay in the plant and hit this position without having gone other places or to other companies.”
When she took over as plant manager last May, the company was fast approaching its contract expiration date with the UAW. While there were no strikes or layoffs at the Tonawanda plant, thousands of GM workers at other U.S. plants went on strike in September and October. As a result, the company did some layoffs, including 47 people at the Lockport plant who have since been rehired.
The contentious labor negotiations, preceded by the company’s commitment to becoming fully electric by 2035, marked an intense moment in the company’s history, and Wasik was only a few months into the lead role at a plant that makes internal combustion engines.
“A huge benefit was the relationships that I had established over those 25 years,” Wasik said. “Within our workforce, there was a level of concern to say, ‘Hey, where do we fit into the model and the business plan for GM?’ We are an ICE plant.”
Wasik said that since the negotiations happened at the national level, not locally, she and her team were “hanging in the wings.” She and her team communicated frequently with employees during that time.
“It was trying to see through that situation at the time and still be a leader of the plant, because we still had a job to do here,” she said.
It helped to have a good relationship with the UAW Local 774.
“We’ve come together to collaborate and work together on, not only the day-to-day items that come up, but also preparing for our future and staying aligned with good communication and collaboration,” she said.
Those national labor negotiations ended in a tentative agreement at the end of October. As part of that agreement, GM committed to $300 million in investments earmarked for the Tonawanda plant. While Wasik cannot yet discuss specifics on what that money will be used for, she’s confident the plant will play a huge role in the company’s future.
“We make the engines and machine the blocks, heads and cranks that go into some of GM’s hottest products,” Wasik said. “So, our plant is very critical to the overall scope of GM’s portfolio, and it’s important for me to remind the workforce of that.”
Wasik said GM has shown that it believes in the Tonawanda plant by making investments in it over that last decade. She plans to focus on making sure that continues.
“Our primary focus is being the most efficient, being the safest and the best quality, and committing to those metrics we’ve been given in Tonawanda,” she said. “When we do those things it tells the corporation that Tonawanda can handle the next thing. Sending that message on our performance and our culture will be what sets the tone for GM to continue to invest here in Tonawanda.”