GM strike, day 19: Unsettled issues remain at 'main table' - The Detroit News

Breana Noble The Detroit News

Published 9:25 AM EDT Oct 4, 2019

General Motors Co. and the United Auto Workers resumed contract negotiations Friday morning, as the national strike against the Detroit automaker persisted into its 19th day.

Despite progress in labor talks at Ford Motor Co., the UAW remains committed to reaching a deal with GM first to set a pattern for the other two automakers of the Detroit Three to follow, UAW Vice President Rory Gamble said in a letter to local union leaders Thursday. Unsettled issues such as health care, wages and temporary workers have remained at the "main table" for more than a week and were many of the same the UAW identified when it called for the strike on Sept. 15. Talks paused after 8 p.m. Thursday.

Eighteen of Ford's 20 subcommittees now have tentative agreements or have reached a point in their negotiations in which they need GM's contract to set the pattern. That is up from 11 subcommittees on Sept. 18. Subcommittees wrangle smaller points of the agreement except wages, health care, temporary workers, profit-sharing agreements and product allocation. Subcommittees also continue to meet at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV. Both Ford and FCA's contracts have been extended indefinitely.

Meanwhile, repercussions of the strike at GM continue to move up the supply chain, as Michigan's Unemployment Insurance Agency has processed jobless benefits for about 3,500 auto-supplier workers as of Sept. 30 because of the strike, state spokeswoman Lynda Robinson said. The maximum a claimant can receive is $362 per week.

Strike pay for GM employees is $250 per week. For comparison, top-paid production employees earn $30.46 per hour, or about $1,218 per week. Some 46,000 hourly employees are on strike, including more than 17,000 in Michigan.

GM itself could be out $660 million in profits if the strike persists through Sunday, East Lansing's Anderson Economic Group estimates. Wall Street analysts estimate the effect could be far greater — even $1 billion after the strike's first two weeks.

GM has had to idle or reduce work at five assembly, engine and propulsion plants in Mexico, Ohio and Ontario because of the strike. Those work stoppages have affected nearly 10,000 non-UAW employees.

Union bargainers rejected and countered an offer Monday from the automaker because it took money from bonuses and other payouts to fund newly uncapped profit-sharing, and it would take temporary workers three years to get a permanent job, a person briefed on the negotiations told the Associated Press.

Other specifications were similar to GM's final offer to the UAW prior to the now-expired contract deadline on Sept. 14: wage increases or lump-sum payments offered in all four years to UAW members hired before 2007, an $8,000 ratification bonus, product allocation to Detroit-Hamtramck, and a new battery cell manufacturing facility with a joint venture in northeast Ohio's Mahoning Valley, another person briefed on the talks told AP. The person, who also didn’t want to be identified because the talks are confidential, did not know the status of other provisions that since have been discussed.

It is unclear if a tentative agreement immediately would send UAW members back to work. Members could remain off the job for several more days if a subcouncil of the bargaining committee and local union leaders decides to wait to end the national strike until after UAW members ratify the contract. The walkout already is the longest national strike against GM since 1970, which was 67 days.

The strike is the UAW's first since the Great Recession and GM's bankruptcy in 2009. Now in its third week, it has left a lasting economic impact, experts have said. How much of an impact it has had is expected to be revealed in the months to come.

bnoble@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @BreanaCNoble

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