UAW Members Begin Work at GM With No Contract; Walkout Threat Looms
About 215,000 General Motors workers began working without a contract Monday as the failure to reach an agreement with the United Auto Workers left the giant auto firm vulnerable to scattered factory strikes at any moment.
The union allowed the extension of the previous three-year agreement to lapse at midnight Sunday when the two sides were unable to reach a settlement after three days of intense talks. The UAW told workers to stay on the job for now.
The contract’s expiration increases the pressure on GM, the nation’s largest auto maker, to come to an agreement soon or face a repeat of its woes earlier this year, when walkouts at two small Ohio plants virtually crippled the company’s North American operations and cost it $1 billion. With no contract in force, a walkout can occur at any time without notice.
“If you don’t have a contract, people can go crazy,” said UAW President Stephen Yokich at a news conference at the union’s headquarters in Detroit.
Since talks began with the Big Three auto makers in June, the UAW has scrupulously avoided talking about a strike. The union reached new three-year contracts earlier with Chrysler and Ford without setting strike deadlines.
On Monday, Yokich even avoided using the term “strike,” though he admitted in response to reporters’ questions that local walkouts were increasingly a possibility.
“If the company and some of the locals take a stick and draw a line in the sand . . . obviously those local unions will have to look at other alternatives other than just talking,” he said.
UAW and GM negotiators, both weary from meeting early into the morning, met briefly Monday before recessing. Talks are scheduled to resume this morning.
While Yokich said he was disappointed with the pace of the talks, he said some progress is being made despite some significant sticking points. In a statement, Gerald Knechtel, GM vice president of personnel, said “significant progress” had been made on many issues.
Labor experts believe the two sides are hung up on a deal that would require GM to agree to keep 95% of current UAW jobs for the next three years, the key element of the contracts with Ford and Chrysler.
GM is willing agree to the minimum employment guarantee, but only if it can exempt up to 12 inefficient plants from the contract.
“That’s the main bone of contention,” said David Healy, an independent auto analyst. “I don’t think there is a huge gap at this point.”
Yokich and Richard Shoemaker, the UAW’s chief negotiator with GM, said the current talks have included several sessions with GM Chairman John F. Smith Jr. Negotiations are complicated by numerous disputes between the company and union locals, they said.
The UAW has more than 100 locals representing GM workers. The national union negotiates a master contract that covers major issues such as wages, pension benefits and job security. Each local separately negotiates on issues including work rules and health and safety. Only a handful of local union contracts have been signed thus far. Typically, more than half would already be settled by now, Yokich said.
“There are a lot of intractable problems on the local level,” said Harley Shaiken, labor professor at UC Berkeley.
Relations between the UAW and GM have been strained for years with problems simmering in certain plants. GM was hit by nine local strikes in the last three years, including a 17-day walkout in March at two Ohio parts plants that shut down 26 assembly plants, resulted in layoffs of 177,000 workers and cost the company $900 million.
GM also has more than 22,000 U.S. workers still idled in the wake of the 20-day strike by the Canadian Auto Workers that ended last week.
