Car Parts Maker Moves to Break Its Union Deals (Delphi)

[cal04]

Delphi, the nation's biggest auto parts maker, on Friday asked a federal judge for permission to throw out some of its labor agreements, a move that could cost 20,000 union workers their jobs and leave thousands of others with less than half their current wages. Delphi, which is operating in bankruptcy, wants the judge's permission to impose sharply lower wages and benefits on six unions, setting up a confrontation that its largest union, the United Automobile Workers, said could lead to a lengthy strike.

But such a strike could also cripple General Motors, which spun off Delphi in 1999 and remains its biggest customer. Any harm to G.M., it could eviscerate the U.A.W.'s own influence as one of the nation's most socially progressive and powerful unions, while accelerating the slide of the American auto industry. Delphi said it would close or sell all but 8 of its 29 plants in the United States and cut 28,500 positions around the world. Beyond the 20,000 of its 33,100 hourly jobs in the United States that Delphi plans to cut, another 8,500 salaried jobs worldwide are to be eliminated.

"I took this job thinking this was my future," said Tracey Huffman, 37, staring blankly down at a table at Jamins, a pool hall next to the U.A.W. Local 651 hall on the east side of Flint, Mich. "Now I don't know. It's like starting all over again." Ms. Huffman, who is scheduled to be laid off temporarily at the end of April, now fears that her layoff could become permanent. Any decision by the judge, however, is expected to be weeks or even months away.

The confrontation promises to become even more fierce in coming months, as G.M. tries to extricate itself from its worst financial crisis in over a decade, and the U.A.W. fights Delphi over the deep wage cuts that it wants to impose.
All sides could be losers. A strike by the U.A.W. could send G.M. into bankruptcy alongside its former parts unit, a fate that would be an even bigger debacle for the union and the industry than Delphi's bankruptcy has proved to be. And unless a judge rejects Delphi's effort to abrogate its contract, the U.A.W. faces the prospect that it can no longer give its workers the security it has fought for years to provide, leaving the union's president, Ron Gettelfinger, distressed.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/01/business/01delphi.html?hp&ex=1143867600&en=2b86310543413538&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Blue_Tires]

1. and so it starts....

parallel thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=805176&mesg_id=805176

[Joe Fields]

2. My brother has worked at Delphi for 21 years

He has four to go, before he gets his retirement. He most likely will not see it. He has already had to move from his plant near Kansas City to a Delphi plant in Fitzgerald, Ga. just to keep his job. Now, he has found out that his time in Ga. is up in June, and depending on what agreement is made, he may find himself completely separated.

If he is lucky he will get to move to the Arlington, Tx. plant. But for how long no one knows. I doubt seriously if he will be able to stick around long enough to see retirement.

So much for company loyalty and job security.