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UAW to end strike vs. GM
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May 26, 1997: 11:18 a.m. ET
Some 3,500 union workers on strike at Oklahoma plant since early April
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DETROIT (CNNfn) -- Auto workers on the picket lines at a General Motors Corp. plant in Oklahoma will return to work Tuesday ending their seven week strike after reaching a tentative agreement late Saturday night.
Nearly 3,600 United Auto Workers voted Sunday to end the strike by a 70 percent margin. The union workers from UAW Local 1999 have been on strike since at the assembly plant in Oklahoma City, Okla., since April 4.
The strike at the plant over staffing, health and safety issues has idled production of the Chevrolet Malibu and Oldsmobile Cutlass -- two models in the key mid-sized segment. Some employees may return to work sooner to prepare for the re-start of production of those models.
Terms of the new labor agreement, reached after marathon bargaining sessions, were not released. A separate vote to ratify the contract is scheduled for later next week, said John Knowlton, UAW spokesman.
Union officials, speaking anonymously, said most of their demands were satisfied, raising questions about GM's assertions that it will not give in to union demands for more jobs. UAW leaders had asked that GM add at least 500 jobs to the 18-year-old facility.
GM spokesman James Farmer declined to comment on the settlement terms.
GM has said it does not need as many workers to produce the redesigned Malibu and Cutlass cars. Indeed, Chairman Jack Smith restated to shareholders at GM's annual meeting Friday that the firm has a long-standing position not to make settlements that are costly in the long term.
GM said the Oklahoma City strike and a second, still unresolved, dispute at its Pontiac East, Pontiac, Michigan, pickup truck plant have cost it $225 million in lost profits this year as of May 15. For all of 1996, GM lost $1.2 billion in profits because of strikes.
Richard Wagoner, president of GM's North American Operations, said Friday the Oklahoma City strike went on much longer than both the company and the UAW had anticipated. The strike has proved painful for GM because it choked off supplies of the new Malibu just as the carmaker was gearing up to take back market share in the key mid-size car segment.
As the strike wore on, GM scaled back its national advertising for the car, which has generally received positive reviews from the automotive press. GM's plant in Wilmington also makes Malibus, but is further behind on its launch curve.
Separately, about 8,500 workers of the International Union of Electronic Workers in Warren, Ohio, approved a new contract settlement Saturday by a 79 percent margin. Members of IUE Local 717 had staged a one-day strike earlier this month that could have disrupted GM's North American vehicle production.
The agreement guarantees all of the current 8,500 jobs, as well as promises new GM investment at IUE-staffed Ohio parts plants. The IUE workers make electrical components at several plants in the Warren area.
-- From staff and wire reports
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