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UAW to keep working
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October 28, 1996: 5:08 p.m. ET
Union will continue to work at General Motors without a contract
From Correspondent Ed Garsten
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DETROIT (CNNfn) - General Motors Corp. workers will remain on the job without a contract, according to United Auto Workers' President Stephen Yokich.
When bargainers quietly and quickly left GM's Detroit headquarters in the middle of the night Sunday, it looked as if talks had failed and a strike was imminent.
However, UAW's Yokich on Monday reaffirmed a commitment to keep trying. (111K WAV) or (111K AIFF) General Motors has said all along it is hopeful an agreement could be reached.
Negotiators will resume talks on a new labor deal starting Tuesday morning.
The contract covering GM's 215,000 hourly employees in the United States expired on September 14, but the union extended it while bargainers tried to hammer out a new three-year agreement. The extension expired Sunday night.
Yokich said the number one priority is job security. The union has already won guarantees from Ford and Chrysler but the union head said GM isn't going along with the so-called pattern.
"The program we presented in the Big Three was like a one hat fits all sizes, and it does. We know it. They know it. The world knows it." said Yokich, expressing dismay that an agreement had not been reached yet.
GM said it needs to trim at least 35,000 jobs in the next three years to remain competitive and claimed job guarantees stifle flexibility.
Aside from job security on the national level, the UAW said a major holdup is the myriad of local issues from health and safety issues to the location of rest rooms at various plants.
Those are some of the same issues that sparked a debilitating 20-day strike against GM in Canada last month.
But both sides said they'll keep trying to avoid a walkout until they're talked-out. 
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