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GM, UAW feel urgency
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July 10, 1998: 5:34 p.m. ET
Negotiators hope for a settlement by Monday, but sharp differences remain
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - As talks between General Motors and the United Auto Workers resumed Friday, a top labor negotiator said that despite some headway on minor points, progress had stopped on the more substantive issues, hamstringing efforts to resolve the walkouts at two key parts plants.
Norm McComb, the vice president of UAW Local 659, said on Friday that negotiators remained "very far apart" at the Flint Metal Plant, where 3,400 workers walked off their jobs on June 5, and at the Delphi Parts Plant, whose 5,800 workers joined the strike on June 11, "they are further apart than we are."
The walkouts by the 9,200 striking workers have idled 161,200 GM workers and paralyzed production at 26 of GM's 29 assembly plants in North America. The strikes have cost GM $1.18 billion - nearly 20 times the $50 million in losses GM estimates it incurs annually due to inefficiencies at the metal-stamping plant.
MCComb said that on Tuesday and Wednesday, negotiators solved some "minor" issues at Flint Metal. "We thought it was a good sign, but as soon as minor stuff was out of the way, progress stopped," he said.
General Motors Corp. and United Auto Workers officials are pushing for a settlement to the monthlong labor dispute before GM's two-week model-changeover shutdown end on Monday. Even if that comes to pass, however, and workers ratify the pact over the weekend, GM may not be able to ramp up its production again to pre-strike levels until the end of the summer, analysts say.
By then, several plants will be set for model changeovers, a process that normally entails lower production levels.
The two sides also appear to have different outlooks about the prospect of a settlement. McComb said that the linkage of a resolution of the strikes at the Flint plants and the union memberships authorization for strikes at other GM plants are being handled at national level talks that are being held separately.
In those national talks, GM is said to be seeking a guarantee from the UAW that it won't call new strikes at two brake plants in Dayton, Ohio and at a stamping plant in Indianapolis, Ind. where workers have scheduled a strike vote for Sunday.
In a tentative sign of progress, GM said it plans to restart full production at the Dayton brake plants Monday, where the work stoppages in Flint have idled more than 1,200 workers. GM said it will need the factories to be up and running in order to meet contractual obligations with GM and other automakers.
General Motors Labor Vice President Gerald Knechtel told reporters Thursday that "it's critical we get (a settlement) done this weekend."
UAW: Talks are "painstakingly slow"
But UAW vice president Richard Shoemaker said Thursday he would be "shocked" if the strikes were settled by the weekend. He said the negotiations were "painstakingly slow" and that "there are many, many significant issues to be resolved."
The Wall Street Journal, citing sources close to the talks, reported Thursday that issues related to GM's giant Buick City complex in Flint, where workers authorized a strike last fall, are also on the table.
GM is scheduled to close the assembly section of the complex in 1999, but Buick City also produces engines used in many GM cars, and a strike there could again cripple part of GM's production.
People close to the talks told the New York Times the UAW also wanted a formal timeline for when GM will invest the remaining $180 million of a $300 million investment plan at the Flint metal-stamping plant. GM has said it scaled back the investment in the plant because the union failed to help rid the factory of inefficient work rules.
Despite all the outstanding differences between the two sides, signs emerged Thursday that the talks were making progress as the end of the summer shutdown nears.
The company reportedly ran radio announcements on Thursday calling workers at a Romulus, Mich., engine plant back to work on Monday. The plant makes V-8 engines for GM's new pickup truck and its Corvette.
The disputes at both plants, while varying in their details, involve basically the same issue, primarily GM's professed desire to farm out more of its parts manufacturing - just as Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp. have done - to remain competitive.
The shrinking UAW, by contrast, is trying to keep GM from eliminating more of its members jobs by transferring, or "outsourcing", work to non-union supplier firms.
UAW locals in Dayton already have voted to authorize strikes at two Delphi brake plants in that city if UAW leaders decide to take such action against GM.
GM (GM) shares closed unchanged Friday at 71-3/16 in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
--From staff and wire reports
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