GM and Union Reach Tentative Strike Accord : Labor: The agreement would end a four-day walkout that stopped the flow of parts to many of the auto maker’s plants.

General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers union reached a tentative agreement Friday to end a four-day-old strike that stopped the flow of parts critical to keeping many GM plants running.

About 12,000 workers at GM’s Buick City complex in Flint walked out Tuesday in a dispute that focused attention on manufacturer use of overtime instead of new workers to meet rising demand in the growing economy.

The union contended GM was endangering workers’ health and safety by running plants flat-out and scheduling employees to work many more hours than the usual 40-hour week.

Under the tentative agreement, GM will hire more workers for the Flint plants, drawing from a pool of former GM employees who were laid off years ago and have lost normal recall rights, said Dave Yettaw, president of UAW Local 599.

He would not divulge details of the deal, but given the size of the work force and the nature of the dispute, it seemed likely that hundreds of hires might be involved.

The local is the UAW’s largest at GM. The Buick City complex assembles large, front-drive sedans and produces V6 engines, transmission torque converters, springs and other suspension components.

GM would not comment on the proposed settlement.

Several facilities have run short of those parts, which are delivered on a “just-in-time” basis to the assembly line.

GM’s assembly plants in Lansing, Mich., and Linden, N.J., have halted production, while production of automatic transmissions in Warren and Ypsilanti, Mich., has been cut back. In all, more than 22,000 hourly workers were idled.

If union members vote to accept the tentative agreement at a meeting today, some production might resume Sunday in Flint, but the interruption in the flow of parts to other plants will take several days to rectify.

“It’s possible, and certainly almost likely, that we’re going to have a few more plants affected by this,” GM spokesman John Shea said. “It’s going to be several days before all of our plants have resumed normal operations.”

One key in reaching the tentative agreement was the involvement of UAW Vice President Stephen Yokich, who kept in touch with bargainers in Flint and talked Thursday evening with GM President Jack Smith.

Yokich said the same problem is affecting many other GM plants, and he wants to persuade GM to recall more laid-off workers.

Under pressure from Wall Street, shareholders and competitors, the auto maker has eliminated 52,000 hourly jobs since 1991 to boost productivity and profit.

The tentative settlement had a negligible impact on GM stock, which rose 12.5 cents a share Friday to close at $46.875.