Strike Ending at Key GM Parts Plant

Employees began returning to a key parts plant Sunday after a strike caused more than 47,000 General Motors Corp. workers to be laid off nationwide, but GM officials could not say when the layoffs would end.

The 6-day strike at the Delco Electronics plant triggered interrupted operations in eight states and threatened to shut down the nation’s No. 1 auto maker as the supply of radios and electronic parts for GM cars was exhausted.

The 7,700 United Auto Workers at the GM subsidiary walked off the job Nov. 17, in a dispute over subcontracting and a plan to produce the newest line of Delco radios in Mexico.

UAW Local 292 shop chairman Mike Thayer said that some production workers returned at midnight Saturday, and the first full shift was to start at midnight Sunday.

Layoffs to Continue

John Mueller, a GM spokesman in Detroit, said more than 40,000 workers would remain off the job today at plants in Missouri, Louisiana, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Kansas, Indiana and Delaware.

Under the new pact, overwhelmingly approved Saturday by the UAW Local, GM agreed to keep its radio production in Kokomo until the 1991 model year if other cost-cutting measures and Japanese management techniques were put to use.

GM also agreed to stop subcontracting out work, which the union said was done illegally, and it created 800 additional jobs bank slots, which provide full pay and benefits to laid-off employees.