GM, UAW Resolve Strike at Indiana Plant

Hours after General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative national contract, they resolved local issues Saturday at a metal-stamping plant where a four-day strike caused parts shortages and shutdowns at other assembly plants.

A second walkout over local issues that led to the shutdown of GM’s truck plant in Janesville, Wis., remained unresolved.

More shutdowns had been expected this week before the Indianapolis walkout was resolved. The agreement could put the 2,750 union members back on the job and get the four high-profit truck-assembly plants up and running by Monday.

“We’re supposed to get it ratified by noon tomorrow,” GM spokesman Pat Morrissey said Saturday night, referring to the Indianapolis deal. “We’re certainly hopeful that we’ll be back on full production by Monday.”

Earlier Saturday, GM and the UAW announced a tentative national contract, averting a national strike but leaving the local issues in Indianapolis and Janesville for separate negotiations.

GM Chairman Jack Smith said the company was focused on resolving the local issues quickly. “It’s important to get those operations back to work and building high-quality cars and trucks,” he said.

Representatives of the 4,800 workers in Janesville and GM were still talking Saturday when the Indianapolis deal was announced. Local UAW spokesman Buford Buleau said the Indianapolis deal would have no effect on the Janesville talks.

The national agreement, covering 215,000 GM workers, came at 1:30 a.m. EST after four months of negotiations and a final 17-hour session in Detroit.

Details were not released. The UAW said its national bargaining committee endorsed the pact unanimously. It next goes to the UAW-GM council of local presidents for approval Wednesday before going to members for ratification.

While details on the national agreement were withheld pending Wednesday’s union meeting, GM chief negotiator Gerald A. Knechtel said it followed the pattern established in national pacts the UAW signed with Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp.

Those companies agreed to maintain at least 95% of their UAW-covered jobs for the next three years, with exceptions for an industry downturn and jobs replaced by improved productivity. GM was seeking broader exceptions that would allow it to trim its work force by tens of thousands of jobs, especially in its big parts subsidiary, Delphi Automotive Systems.