UAW Local 696 Back to Work

03/25/96

Members of UAW Local 696 ended an 18 day strike when they ratified a their new contract with the company by a 99% majority last Friday. The striking workers assemble braking systems and components at 2 Delphi Chassis plants in Dayton, Ohio; their strike is estimated to have cost GM $600 million in lost production.

President Clinton praised both sides for "spending long hours at the bargaining table" and working hard to settle the dispute. Both sides claimed victory with the new contract, and both seem to have won. The dispute arose over the issue of outsourcing, GM's plans to buy brake components from outside suppliers. The union had argued that GM's plans to buy brakes from Robert Bosch Corp, would cost 325 jobs. The new agreement allows GM to proceed with their plans to buy assemblies from Robert Bosch, but at the same time promises to increase the number of jobs at the plants by 417 over the next three years. GM will add an additional 269 jobs for future work, if the brake plants prove competitive with outside suppliers.

Under the agreement GM will also pay compensation to workers for having broken a promise to create jobs in the past, and the company has agreed to spend $6.5 million to correct health and safety violations filed by Local 696. The union expects overtime at the plants to drop from 40% to about 20% as a result of the new agreement.

GM announced that by Wednesday they will have re-opened all the plants they shutdown during the strike. The first plants to re-open will be those that make trucks and sport-utility vehicles, GM's big money makers.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel