GM Asks States to Deny Unemployment Benefits to Laid Off Workers

03/18/96

General Motors initially responded to UAW Local 696's strike at two Delphi Chassis plants in Dayton, Ohio by shutting down plants all over North America and laying off the workers that staff them. By last weekend, the number of workers GM had laid off was estimated at 120,000, while the number of workers involved in the strike in Ohio is estimated to be between 2,600 and 3,000.

At the end of the last week, GM escalated the stakes in the strike when, in addition to laying off workers the company began filing protests aimed at disallowing unemployment benefits that laid-off workers generally get. Because the laid off workers are not striking, they are eligible for unemployment benefits in the states where they work, and those benefits, in turn, get assessed to GM, as per long standing unemployment policies. The nation's richest automaker, however, wants state unemployment agencies to declare the workers they have laid off ineligible for such benefits.

The responses of state unemployment agencies has not been reported.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel