Banished to the Back Lot : Industry: Some Van Nuys workers are angry that they can’t park their non-General Motors cars out front.

Some of the workers who build Camaros and Firebirds in Van Nuys must tuck their cars out of sight at work these days because General Motors doesn’t want to confront the world with Ford or Chrysler labels on its face. Or worse yet: “Made in Japan.”

All non-GM cars have been banished from the company’s small front parking lot on Van Nuys Boulevard by a company edict that went into effect three weeks ago. A sign warns employees in red letters:

“This parking lot is reserved for cars and trucks made and marketed by General Motors. All others will be towed away at owner’s expense.”

Employees who drive other makes have been banished to the sprawling lots on the north side of the plant, which are open to all vehicle makes.

The exclusive lot, which provides about 10% of the plant’s parking space, is the company’s way of thanking employees who buy GM cars and trucks, a “recognition of company product loyalty,” said Jim Gaunt, personnel director at the plant, which produces Pontiac Firebirds and Chevrolet Camaros.

The lot at the plant’s main entrance also creates a good image for visitors, who park in an adjacent lot, he said. This way, the first thing a visitor sees is a sea of 150 or so Chevrolets and Pontiacs.

United Auto Workers Local 645, which represents workers at the plant, doesn’t see it that way and has filed a grievance against General Motors, Secretary-Treasurer Ruben Garcia said.

The union wouldn’t mind having a lot exclusively for American-made cars, which is the practice at some plants in the Detroit area, but it thinks a GM-only rule is extreme, Garcia said. “If they prefer an import, let them park elsewhere,” he said. “If we don’t buy products made here in America, we’re all going to be out of a job.”

Gaunt disagreed. “I understand their position,” he said. “They’re the UAW. But we’re GM. The sale of a Ford or Chrysler does not help the GM business.”

Others among the plant’s 3,800 employees voiced mixed reactions.

“We make GM; let’s promote GM,” said Greg Watson, a millwright welder who despite his support for the plan drives a Chrysler Turbo Z.

He doesn’t mind not being allowed to park in the front lot because he works on the other side of the plant anyway, he said.

Carlos Plascencia, an assembly line team leader who has a GMC truck, said the GM-only rule should be expanded to all company parking lots. “This plant depends on the products we sell,” he said. “If you’re going to do it, do it 100%.”

But some think the exclusive lot is a half-baked idea to improve the car company’s image.

“They want to penalize the workers who aren’t driving their product,” said Robert Siefman, an assembly line worker who drives a Volkswagen Jetta. “I think it’s just a petty thing--typical General Motors.”

Non-GM vehicles discovered in the reserved lot are towed to a locked enclosure about 300 yards away. To date, Gaunt estimated, the vehicles of “a dozen or so” wayward employees have been towed and they have had to pay $40 apiece to recover them.

The GM-only parking lot rule will probably remain limited to the Van Nuys plant, at least in California. The only other GM plant in the state is a joint venture in Fremont between GM and Toyota, where Geo Prizms are manufactured alongside Toyota Corollas.