GM Reaches Tentative Pact With Strikers

A tentative settlement was reached today in a walkout that forced General Motors Corp. to shut down factories in eight states, but the 44,550 striking and laid-off workers stayed off the job, a GM spokesman said.

With more than 36,850 workers laid off, GM could be forced to idle more workers because of the companywide parts shortage caused by the strike, said GM spokesman John Grix.

“They’ve completely exhausted the (parts) pipeline,” Grix said.

With the Thanksgiving holiday, he said, GM will have only three days next week to start making and shipping the essential Delco parts to its assembly plants.

Delco Electronics spokesman Bill Draper said today that if the agreement is approved, workers would be called in sometime Sunday to fire up furnaces and the plant could begin shipping parts by Monday afternoon at the earliest.

17-Hour Bargaining Session

The agreement came about 2 a.m. after a 17-hour bargaining session between negotiators for GM’s Delco Electronics subsidiary and United Auto Workers Local 292 in Kokomo, Ind., GM spokesman John Mueller said.

Details of the agreement were not disclosed because of the pending ratification vote, scheduled for Saturday, he said.

Local 292 President Ron Cassis predicted the proposal would be ratified.

The strike by 7,700 workers at the Delco plant in Kokomo forced other GM assembly lines to shut down for lack of parts. About 36,850 GM workers were told to stay home today as the parts shortage idled plants in Michigan, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Kansas, Delaware, New Jersey and Indiana.