UAW locals threaten strikes at five GM plants

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSN0443094020080404

Fri Apr 4, 2008 7:32pm EDT

DETROIT (Reuters) - United Auto Workers union locals at five General Motors Corp(GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) plants have served notice with the automaker that they could strike if progress is not made in reaching plant-specific contracts within days.

GM reached a four-year national contract with the UAW last year, but has not yet reached local agreements with most of the more than 70 union locals representing individual facilities on issues such as work rules.

GM said it had received the notices from UAW locals representing assembly plants in Arlington, Texas; Flint, Michigan; and the Lansing-Delta Township plant in Michigan.

A stamping plant in Parma, Ohio, and a transmission plant in Warren, Michigan, also have delivered a five-day notice that precedes an official strike warning, GM spokesman Dan Flores said. The strike warning also carries a five-day notice period under the union's terms with the automaker.

Separately, Flores said GM had reached agreement with the UAW at the national level on what many analysts had seen as the most contentious issue remaining -- how many positions at each U.S. facility would be open to lower-wage new hires.

GM and the UAW had agreed not to disclose the number of those positions at the facilities, Flores said.

FULL 2 page story at link.