American Axle CEO: Don't Know When Strike Will End

[Omaha Steve]

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200804241624DOWJONESDJONLINE001246_FORTUNE5.htm

April 24, 2008: 04:24 PM EST

DETROIT -(Dow Jones)- American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. (AXL) Chairman and Chief Executive Richard E. Dauch said Thursday that he doesn't know when the strike at the auto supplier will end, but he said the company's primary focus is on talks with the United Auto Workers union and a getting competitive agreement at its original U.S. plants.

About 3,650 workers represented by the UAW at five American Axle plants in Michigan and New York have been on strike since Feb. 26 in a dispute over wages and benefits.

The strike has crippled production of pickup trucks and SUVs for General Motors Corp. (GM), American Axle's largest customer. It also has spread to GM's production of cars.

Answering questions, some from union members, at the company's annual shareholder's meeting in Detroit, Dauch said the plants where union members are striking haven't been profitable for years and can't win new business with its current wage-and-benefit structure.

"We're all sorry there is a strike," Dauch said. But he added that the company "simply cannot compete" at the plants in question with a wage-and-benefit structure on the level of an auto maker.

American Axle was founded when an investor group bought some plants from GM.

FULL story at link.