Sweeping Buyout Planned at GM by Joseph
Szczesny (3/24/2006)
UAW agrees to cuts at company, Delphi.
GM, UAW Reach Delphi Deal by TCC Team
(3/22/2006)
Sweeping buyouts to help GM right Delphi, job cuts.
The bankrupt Delphi Corp. faces some critical choices this week as the deadline for revising its labor agreement with the United Auto Workers fast approaches.
Even though the UAW has agreed to a buyout deal, Delphi still has to come to an agreement with the UAW and the other unions on revisions to the existing contracts on wages and benefits. Robert ‘Steve’ Miller, Delphi’s chairman and chief executive officer, said last month that if there is no deadline by March 30 he would have no choice but to petition the bankruptcy judge to have the existing contracts set aside.
Meanwhile, UAW officials from
president Ron Gettelfinger on down have been signaling for past couple of weeks
there was no way they could meet the deadline imposed by Miller. The UAW, with
help from GM, did succeed in negotiating a buyout agreement that will allow some
13,000 UAW members employed by Delphi to retire or quit with a cash settlement
of between $70,000 and $140,000. In addition, Delphi also appears to be on verge
of buyout agreements with two other unions, the IUE-CWA and United Steel
Workers, that would help it eliminate the jobs of another 4000 blue-collar
workers, meaning that Delphi is on the verge of cutting its blue-collar
workforce by more than half.
In addition, another 5000 UAW
members could be eligible to transfer back to GM, meaning another large cut in
the size of Delphi’s workforce to around 10,000 to 12,000 workers after
downsizing.
Delphi says it will still need to
reduce the wages of the workers left behind after the buyouts take hold. The
discussions with the unions on the second part of Delphi’s turnaround equation
are still underway. Lindsey Williams, a Delphi spokesman, emphasized the
discussions on new contracts have never really stopped and the company still
wants them wrapped up this week. Delphi’s position is that it will go to court
with the petition if there is no agreement, Williams said.
Miller could use the buyout
agreement as symbol of the good faith and sound judgment on the part of the
unions, and delay the filing of the petition asking for the judge to terminate
the existing labor agreement. This is the course that the unions — and General
Motors, which is also participating in the talks — seem to prefer.
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On the other hand, filing the
petition for contract relief with the bankruptcy judge could disrupt the
delicate discussions that are now underway. At the very least, the unions will
be required to halt the negotiations at least for a few days.
The filing also could anger
Delphi’s workforce, which was deeply offended by the tough rhetoric Miller used
last fall when he described them as overpaid by standards prevailing across the
auto parts sector in the U.S. and around the world. Gettelfinger vowed last fall
that the union would strike if Delphi had a judge impose a contract that
included deep cuts in pay and benefit.
Some in the press have talked up
the possibility of wildcat strikes or local walkouts, but it appears the
union has maintained a pretty tight grip on those kind of potentially
disruptive notions.
Miller’s tough language,
though, has helped create a dissident movement inside the Delphi ranks that is
vowing to fight any kind of concessions at ratification. The
anti-concession sentiment inside the union is strong enough that the UAW’s top
leadership is uncertain it could get the so-called “consensual” agreement
ratified without an exhausting, all-out fight with dissidents. Sean
McAlinden, chief economist for the Center For Automotive Research in Ann Arbor,
says the buyouts could help defuse the dissident movement by drawing some of the
hardliners into retirement and away from a confrontation with Miller and
Delphi.
Last week, the dissidents were
already attacking the buyouts as a bad deal for workers, cutting many of the
gains and wages benefits for which the UAW and other unions had struggled over
the years.
The UAW also indicated that even if does go along with a revised labor agreement, it will want some major concessions on bringing work back into the U.S. from places such as Mexico and China, where Delphi has extensive operations.
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