U.S.

Suit: UAW Got Bribes To End GM Strike

August 8, 2000 / 8:19 AM EDT / AP

The U.S. government is investigating whether United Auto Workers officials demanded jobs for relatives and improper overtime payments for ending a costly 1997 strike at General Motors Corp.'s Pontiac truck plants, a newspaper said Tuesday.

The 87-day strike canceled production of more than 70,000 GM pickups, the company's best-selling vehicle. Along with a strike in Oklahoma City that year, the strike cost GM an estimated $490 million after taxes.

The probe centers on officers of UAW Local 594 in Pontiac and some GM labor officials who may have given in to the alleged demands, UAW members and officials told the Detroit Free Press. They said they recently had been interviewed by federal investigators.

None of those who spoke wanted to be identified, the newspaper said.

A related civil class-action lawsuit by GM workers was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Detroit. The suit seeks $50 million in compensatory damages from GM and the UAW and $500 million in punitive damages from the UAW, the Free Press said.

Investigators at the FBI and the Labor Department's Office of the Inspector General declined to comment. A GM spokesman who was not identified told the newspaper that the automaker was "working with the federal government" on the criminal case.

No one answered the telephone late Monday at UAW Local 594. A message was left late Monday at UAW headquarters in Detroit seeking comment.

Several individuals at the UAW and GM have been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury, the Free Press said.

So far, 21 members of Local 594 have sued GM and the local. Their suit says the UAW and GM breached their contract and their duty. The suit says Local 594 did not fairly represent its members and prolonged the 1997 strike by up to two months.

Assembly workers lost an average of $10,000 in salary and skilled-trades workers closer to $20,000 during the strike, the newspaper said.

The suit alleges that the strike settlement was delayed to get the sons of certain UAW officials hired.

It also says GM agreed to pay approximately $200,000 designated as overtime payments to top officials at Local 594.

"Our accusation is that (some) members of the Local 594 bargaining committee illegally split up about $200,000 between them," said Harold Dunne, a Livonia attorney representing the workers in the lawsuit.

The plant employs about 6,000 workers.

The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 makes it illegal for union officials to accept anything beyond a normal salary from a company with which they are negotiating.