Full bargaining teams from the United Auto Workers (UAW) and American Axle & Manufacturing (AAM) are expected to meet on Wednesday in the first formal talks between the two sides in a month, a local newspaper said on Tuesday.
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The Detroit Free Press said the scheduled talks came after UAW president Ron Gettelfinger and American Axle CEO Dick Dauch met privately on Monday in a session that a company spokeswoman called productive.
The six-week-old strike by 3,650 American Axle workers at four plants has forced thousands of layoffs at key customer and former AAM owner General Motors and several suppliers, all of which have had to cut production.
UAW negotiators, including those from out of town, are expected to reconvene on Tueday, a union official told the newspaper. American Axle spokeswoman Renee Rogers also said top negotiators from both sides are also expected to meet.
The Detroit Free Press noted that American Axle recently placed vacancy ads in newspapers near its plants to hire workers to either, after a deal, replace those who take buyout or retirement packages or replace striking workers.
Dauch had earlier told the Free Press that the company had the ability to move production out of the United States.
The paper said the news annoyed workers in a development reminiscent of the ill will caused when Illinois-based Caterpillar used replacement workers to break a UAW strike in 1994.
The union eventually ended the strike, allowing workers to reclaim their jobs from temporary replacement workers, the report added.
Citing labour experts, the Free Press said key strikes at Caterpillar, the airline Northwest, and those at General Motors and Chrysler over the summer, are all examples of the change that has taken place at the bargaining table as companies and their workforces confront global competition and rising prices for commodities, such as fuel and steel, which squeeze profits.
Where unions used to demand wage increases, now it’s the opposite, with concessions more often on the table.
