ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 29, 1996 TAG: 9610290078
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DETROIT
SOURCE: Associated Press
THE UNION WANTS a guarantee of work while General Motors wants to sell several of its parts plants.
United Auto Workers President Stephen Yokich said Monday that the union had no immediate plans for a strike against General Motors Corp. despite failing to reach an agreement during weekend negotiations.
The union had set a midnight Sunday deadline for a deal, but agreed to continue negotiations Tuesday for a contract with the last of the Big Three automakers.
While Yokich said he was committed to reaching an agreement at the bargaining table, he also left open the possibility that some UAW-GM locals could call strikes at individual plants.
``These locals are going to have to take a look at it themselves,'' Yokich said.
Once the deadline passed, the UAW's extension of the old GM contract terminated, freeing the union to call a strike. UAW-GM locals with no local agreements are free to call walkouts with the national union's approval.
Yokich said GM employees would continue to work without a contract for the time being.
Neither the union nor GM would say what was holding up the talks, although Yokich said several locals had ``some sticky issues'' that UAW leaders decided to resolve before signing the national pact.
Negotiators met for about 17 hours straight at GM's headquarters, finally recessing just before 2 a.m. Monday.
Officials at UAW-GM locals across the nation waited by their phones for word of whether they would strike or return to work Monday. They said their members were ready to go out if necessary.
The UAW has scheduled a meeting of its leadership council Saturday in Detroit to discuss the GM situation.
``Either we'll have a tentative agreement, or General Motors will be starting to feel the effects of a strike,'' predicted Joe Burkhamer, president of Local 2209 at GM's Fort Wayne, Ind., truck plant.
Yokich said, ``I think Ford and Chrysler understood when we said we're preparing ourselves and our union to enter the 21st century with you as partners in the corporation. And I'm not too sure that GM still understands that. But they've always been late bloomers.''
GM chief negotiator Gerald A. Knechtel said there had been ``significant progress'' on many issues, but that GM remained committed to securing the flexibility it needs to become more competitive.
Ford and Chrysler agreed to guarantee the UAW that they would maintain at least 95 percent of their union jobs over the next three years, with some exceptions for economic downturns and productivity improvements.
GM, however, is in the midst of a restructuring in which it hopes to cut its work force by selling many of its parts plants. It wants those parts plants that are not meeting profit goals to be excluded from the base work force number used to calculate the 95 percent guarantee.
It was still unclear Monday whether the two sides had reached any agreement on that key job-security issue.
GM is recovering from a three-week strike by the Canadian Auto Workers, who reached a settlement last week. GM said 22,739 workers in the United States and Mexico were on layoff status Monday as a result of the CAW strike.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. 1. Negotiators for the United Auto Workers walk outby CNBof General Motors headquarters in Detroit after taking a recess from
talks that passed a union-imposed midnight deadline. 2. Stephen
Yokich\ The UAW will work for now. color.