United Auto Workers members have voted to authorise a strike against Delphi, adding a new threat to already tense negotiations between the two sides and Delphi’s former parent and largest customer General Motors, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
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The UAW said on Tuesday that more than 95% of members who voted approved the strike authorisation.
The report said UAW members had been expected to approve the measure, which allows the international union to call a strike against Delphi if it feels one is necessary as the two sides bargain over wages.
Delphi spokesman Lindsey Williams told AP the company intends to keep negotiating with the UAW.
“Their strike authorisation vote doesn’t change our strategy, and that strategy remains to get a consensual agreement with all of our unions and GM,” Williams reportedly said.
The Associated Press said the UAW is by far the largest of Delphi’s six unions, representing 24,000 of the company’s 33,000 US hourly workers – the International Union of Electronic Workers-Communications Workers of America, which represents 8,000 workers, also has voted to authorise a strike.
AP added that the strike votes give Delphi’s unions more weight in their ongoing wage negotiations with the company – Delphi, which filed for bankruptcy protection in October, has proposed cutting its US hourly workers’ wages from $27 an hour to $16.50 an hour, or as low as $12.50 an hour if GM doesn’t agree to supplement those wages.
Delphi was in US Bankruptcy Court last week asking Judge Robert Drain for permission to cancel its labour contracts after it failed to reach a deal with its unions and GM. Drain isn’t expected to rule until next month, and even then, Delphi could continue to keep the contracts in place while negotiations continue, the report said.
According to AP, the union said on Tuesday that the vote gives it the ability “to call a strike should Delphi use its bankruptcy court proceedings to unilaterally impose changes to the UAW-Delphi collective bargaining agreements.”
AP noted that a Delphi strike could harm a number of automakers but could paralyse GM, which remains Delphi’s largest customer.
