GM Workers OK Strike Settlement
Workers at two strikebound General Motors parts plants in Michigan voted overwhelmingly to approve a settlement aimed at ending the most costly walkouts ever waged against the automaker.
Union members at the Delphi Flint East plant and the Flint Metal Center ratified the agreements Wednesday. Seventy-six percent of the members at the Delphi plant approved the pact, The Flint Journal reported. About 90 percent at the metal center accepted it, WWJ radio reported.
CBS News Correspondent Diana Olick reports that the mood was serious Wednesday at the cultural center in Flint, Mich., where employees were casting votes.
Despite the strong approval for the pact, there were some misgivings among the rank and file.
Clifford Riley, a job setter at Delphi East plant in Flint, said he was concerned that a company guarantee not to sell the plant runs only through 1999. The issue is expected to come up during national contract negotiations next summer.
"In '99, this might come again," Riley said. "That's the big issue our jobs leaving. After 2000, they'll probably be gone."
GM and the United Auto Workers announced a tentative agreement Tuesday to end strikes at two Flint parts plants that have cost the world's largest automaker more than $2.2 billion.
The strikes cost GM more than $2.2 billion and brought North American production to a virtual halt, idling more than 200,000 workers at one point and affecting dozens of communities. The deal was announced 53 days after the strikes began.
The agreement covers the two Flint plants and several other factories where disputes threatened to escalate into walkouts. But perhaps the most significant result is a commitment by GM and the UAW to try to resolve disputes through frequent talks among top officials.
"The measure of whether or not this strike was worth it will come in the long run," GM Vice President Gerald Knechtel said. "One of the very good things that might come out of what has been a very difficult situation is a constructive focus by both of us to work very hard to avoid these kinds of situations in the future."
UAW President Stephen Yokich also expressed a desire for an improved relationship.
"I hope in the near future that General Motors and the UAW can sit down and find a different way of doing things," he said.
All but two of GM's 29 major, wholly owned assembly plants in North America were idled because of the strikes by 9,200 workers. More than 100 GM parts plants also were affected, in addition to dozens of suppliers.
GM said it will take at least two days for parts from Flint to get into the pipeline and for the first idled assembly plants to resume operation. The soonest all plants could be back in operation is next week, though it may take longer, depending on which vehicles are given priority.
The UAW has hit General Motors with 22 local walkouts sice 1990, while Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp. have enjoyed nearly strike-free relations with the union.
GM has had more labor problems in part because it remains the least productive and overstaffed of the major automakers relative to its declining market share. While it has trimmed its work force through attrition, industry analysts say it still needs to cut about 50,000 jobs to match competitors.
But GM's efforts to downsize have led to friction with the UAW. And Knechtel said the push to become more productive won't end.
"We've made a tremendous amount of competitive improvement at General Motors, and we've done it through our people and, in many cases, we've done it with the help of the United Auto Workers union," Knechtel said. "But we are the high-cost producer, and we have to achieve a tremendous amount of further improvement."
The promise of more cooperation will be put to the test soon.
The union still has strike authorization from workers at the Saturn car plant in Tennessee, while disgruntled workers at the Chevrolet Corvette plant in Kentucky are working without a contract and could strike. The union also has threatened a walkout at a Wisconsin truck plant.
The settlement resolves only disputes at the Flint Metal Center stamping plant, where workers went on strike June 5, and the Delphi Flint East parts plant, where a walkout began June 11.
It also resolves disputes at GM Powertrain operations in Flint's Buick City and in nearby Grand Blanc, at two brake plants in Dayton, Ohio, and at a stamping plant in Indianapolis.
At issue in both Flint disputes were work rules, the future of the plants, health and safety concerns, and contracting work to outside suppliers. Workers at both plants feared GM planned to send their jobs to Mexico or overseas.
Under the settlement, the union said GM agreed not to sell the Delphi Flint East plant and the Dayton plants before January 2000. In exchange, the union promised not to strike those plants.
Knechtel said the agreement allows the union to keep "pegged rates" at the Flint stamping plant's engine cradle operation. That allows workers to quit early if they reach set production quotas. But Knechtel said the agreement includes other steps which he would not disclose pending ratification to increase productivity at the plants, while GM will invest $180 million in equipment.
GM also has agreed to drop its grievance against the union, which alleged that the strikes violated the UAW-GM national contract and were thus illegal.
The dispute at the Dayton plants was the last obstacle to the settlement. Officials said some issues still remained unresolved, but that they agreed on a "framework" to do that. Workers there fear GM wants to sell the plant or close it.