UAW, GM, Delphi OK deal
Analysts: New Delphi hires will be paid less
By Christopher Montgomery
cmontgomery@DaytonDailyNews.com
General Motors Corp. and its former parts division Delphi Corp. on Thursday reached tentative contract agreements with the United Auto Workers, more than three days after the previous contracts expired.
GM was the last of Detroit's Big Three automakers still negotiating with the union. Earlier in the week, the UAW reached tentative agreements with DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group, Ford Motor Co. and Visteon Corp., Ford's former parts unit.
"In the last five days, we have successfully concluded negotiations with five of the largest manufacturers in the world," UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said. "That's five for five."
oo Workers of America, agreed to tiered wages in the late 1990s at two Delphi plants in Kettering and Moraine after the company threatened to close them. Under those agreements, new workers started at about $8 an hour. Delphi still cut thousands of jobs at the plants in subsequent years.
Thursday's agreements between GM, Delphi and the UAW will serve as a model for the IUE-CWA's national contracts for the two local Delphi plants, which employ about 3,000, and for GM's Moraine Assembly plant, which employs about 4,000 and makes the Chevrolet TrailBlazer, GMC Envoy and Buick Rainier midsize sport utility vehicles. The IUE-CWA's contract with Delphi expires Nov. 15, and its contract with GM expires Nov. 17.
GM and Delphi officials said Thursday they won't discuss specifics until UAW members ratify the new contracts, which they're expected to do next week.
Brad Rice, president of UAW Local 696, which represents hourly employees at the Dayton brake plants, said he "didn't know anything yet" about the contract's details. Rice and Local 696 Chairman Ron Hill will travel to Detroit to see the agreement before presenting it to members for a vote.
The U.S. parts sector is being battered as automakers slash production and demand cost cuts from their suppliers. At the same time, companies such as Delphi and Visteon are competing with non-union and overseas suppliers that have much lower labor costs.
With its apparent acceptance of a tiered wage system at Delphi and Visteon, the UAW is showing it recognizes the serious competitive threat the suppliers are facing, said Allan Mingus, an analyst for Grand Rapids, Mich.-based automotive consulting firm IRN Inc.
"Current employees won't be affected," Mingus said. "But it will allow Delphi to bring in new hires at a lower rate."
In return for its concession on tiered wages, the UAW likely received a guarantee from GM that it will offer a certain amount of new contracts to Delphi, said Mike Wall, an analyst for CSM Worldwide, a Farmington Hills, Mich.-based auto-research firm. GM remains Delphi's biggest customer, accounting for about 60 percent of the supplier's sales.
"(The UAW) wants to make sure there's plenty of business for the lower-paid workers," Wall said. "You don't want to agree to a two-tier structure and then be told two years later you're no longer needed." |
