GM Closing 2 More Plants as Strike Persists

General Motors prepared to close two more assembly plants Friday because of an 8-day-old strike at a GM parts plant here as marathon negotiations to end the walkout continued.

The auto maker said it would close plants in Wilmington, Del., and Lansing, Mich., Friday because of a lack of parts. The plants join seven others that have already been shuttered.

The supply shortage had already closed assembly plants in Oklahoma City; Wentzville, Mo.; Flint, Mich.; Baltimore; Orion Township, Mich.; Spring Hill, Tenn., and a plant adjacent to the parts plant in Lordstown.

GM spokeswoman Linda Cook said the new closures would take place Friday evening.

“They will get started on the second shift, but they will run out of parts,” she said.

Lansing, with about 7,200 employees, makes the Pontiac Grand Am, the Buick Skylark and the Oldsmobile Achieva. Wilmington has 3,200 employees who make the Chevrolet Corsica and Beretta.

Both plants were operating two shifts, Cook said.

Key remaining issues in the strike were the hiring of non-union workers and GM’s plan to close a tool-and-die shop where 240 people work.

Negotiators for GM and United Auto Workers Local 1714, whose 2,400 members struck Aug. 27 over job security, health and safety issues, met for about 20 hours straight, breaking off at 3:30 a.m. for a rest and returning 6 1/2 hours later.

Neither side would comment on the status of the virtual round-the-clock negotiations held at the metal-stamping plant. With the two new plant closures, the strike has now prompted the layoff of more than 42,900 workers.

GM and UAW Local 1112 settled similar grievances at a second Lordstown GM operation on Thursday. Analysts said the settlement at the Pontiac Sunbird and Chevrolet Cavalier assembly plant might point to a quick resolution of Local 1714’s concerns.

David Cole, director of the Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation at the University of Michigan, said the settlement with Local 1112 was a sign of GM’s flexibility on where its parts and vehicles are made.

GM said last year it will close 21 plants and eliminate about 60,000 hourly positions in the United States and Canada by 1995.

Cole predicted GM would resist any challenge to reduction of its work force.

GM would not comment on the details of the Local 1112 agreement.

Workers at the assembly plant have been laid off since Aug. 28 because of the parts shortage resulting from the Local 1714 strike.