American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings (AAM) on Thursday rejected a United Auto Workers contract proposal as uncompetitive and said talks aimed at ending a six-week strike at five US plants would continue.
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The proposal was “a slight improvement,” but the total cost remained about 200% above the market rate for American Axle’s rivals in the US auto parts sector, the company told Reuters.
The strike has forced one-time AAM owner and still largest customer General Motors to at least partly idle 30 North American plants and thousands of hourly workers. GM accounts for about 80% of American Axle’s annual revenue.
According to the news agency, the UAW presented the new contract offer on Wednesday as the two sides resumed full bargaining for the first time in a month. Some 3,650 UAW-represented workers at American Axle went on strike on 26 February at five US plants.
“If the UAW continues to refuse to make realistic economic proposals, (American Axle) will be forced to consider closing these facilities,” the company said in a statement cited by Reuters.
A market competitive agreement would allow the plants to bid competitively for new business and permit continued company capital investments, AAM said.
It also said it has offered buyouts for UAW workers who would prefer to leave the company, or annual cash payments to workers who accept lower wages and benefits to cushion the blow of steep labour cost concessions.
Those proposals are similar to those the UAW agreed with GM, Chrysler, Ford and Delphi previously, AAM said.
Reuters noted that the UAW and AAM negotiated aggressively after the strike began, but full talks broke off on 11 March and the union said AAM had not provided enough financial details to evaluate its demand for concessions.
Light discussions continued in the weeks after talks broke off and AAM gave the union additional financial information last week under a confidentiality agreement.
Dauch and UAW president Ron Gettelfinger met face-to-face on Monday for the first time in months and the two sides agreed to resume full bargaining later in the week, Reuters added.
Separate reports in the US said AAM, which advertised for new workers recently, had begun interviews for new staff to replace those expected to leave as a result of buyouts arising from strike settlement concessions, when finally achieved.
