04/25/2008

By TOM KRISHER  / Associated Press

United Auto Workers locals at General Motors Corp. factories in Kansas and Michigan delayed threatened walkouts on Friday and continued to negotiate with the automaker over local contract issues.

Workers at the Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City and a metal stamping factory in the Grand Rapids suburb of Wyoming had threatened to strike Friday morning, but both agreed to give the company 12 hours' notice if they intend to strike, GM spokesman Dan Flores said.

The Kansas City plant and a related stamping operation employ about 1,900 hourly workers and make the hot-selling Chevrolet Malibu. Any strike would crimp production and hurt GM's bottom line. The Wyoming plant stamps metal parts and employs about 1,000 hourly workers.

"Talks are continuing and progress is being made," Local 730 at the Wyoming plant said on its Web site. "As long as the talks continue and progress is made workers will continue to work and the strike will be avoided."

Messages were left for Local 31 President Jeff Manning in Kansas City and Roger Kerson, a UAW spokesman in Detroit.

"The bargaining will continue at Fairfax and Grand Rapids toward reaching new local contracts. Our focus is to continue the bargaining and avoid any more walkouts," Flores said.

Local plants negotiate their own operating agreements separate from the national contract, which was settled last year. The local contract deals with issues such as overtime and work rules.

The two locals are part of a larger labor problem that GM faces over local contracts.

A plant in Delta Township near Lansing that makes strong-selling crossover vehicles went on strike April 17, and another local at a key transmission plant in Warren is negotiating and could give a 12-hour strike notice at any time. In addition, workers at a metal stamping plant in Mansfield, Ohio, have threatened to strike on Monday.

Flores says negotiations are under way at all the plants.

GM said earlier this week that the Delta Township strike has not yet hurt its sales of the Buick Enclave, Saturn Outlook or GMC Acadia crossovers, but the strike is a concern to the company.

Industry analysts have speculated that the strike and threats are an effort by the UAW to get GM to put pressure on American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. to settle a bitter two-month strike.

GM accounts for 80 percent of American Axle's parts business. About 3,600 UAW workers at five American Axle plants have been on strike since Feb. 26. Negotiations are continuing.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger says the threats are about local contract issues and have nothing to do with American Axle.

GM shares fell 85 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $21.26, in trading Friday morning.

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On the Net:

General Motors Corp.: http://www.gm.com

United Auto Workers: http://www.uaw.org