COMSTOCK PARK, Mich. (AP) -- Facing the possibility of deep wage concessions and job cuts, unionized workers at Delphi Corp. met Sunday to exchange information and discuss strategy.þþHourly employees of other companies in the automotive industry also attended the meeting to show their support for Delphi workers and voice concerns that they may soon find themselves in the same position.þþ''Anybody with any intelligence realizes we are next,'' said Paul Baxter, 52, a 27-year employee of General Motors Corp. who works at the automaker's Flint Metal Plant. ''Whatever they can get out of Delphi's workers, they're going to try to extract from us.''þþThe UAW represents most of Delphi's approximately 34,000 U.S. hourly workers, but did not authorize the meeting in the Grand Rapids suburb of Comstock Park.þþRather, it was a grass-roots effort organized by members of the rank and file who say they are concerned about a lack of information from their international union.þþReporters were not allowed into the meeting at the UAW Local 1231 union hall but afterward spoke with several attendees, including Tom Vis, a 32-year Delphi employee who described the meeting's atmosphere as ''apprehensive.''þþHe said union workers know what Robert S. ''Steve'' Miller, Delphi's chairman and chief executive, is seeking but has not heard what the UAW is countering with.þþThe Troy-based company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Oct. 8 after failing to reach a restructuring agreement with the UAW and GM, its former parent company.þþDelphi is GM's former parts division. The automaker bought $14 billion in parts from Delphi last year, or around 16 percent of its total parts spending.þþDelphi wants its union workers to accept pay cuts of more than 60 percent, a proposal that elicited an angry response from the UAW and other labor unions. The company's hourly workers receive an average wage of $27 per hour. It's asking the union to accept pay cuts to a range of $9.50 to $10.50 per hour for production workers and $19 per hour for skilled-trades workers.þþThe parts maker also seeks to freeze its pension plan and accept no new participants after Jan. 1. It wants to reduce retiree benefits or terminate the pension plan.þþDelphi also wants hourly workers to pay health care deductibles of $900 per individual and $1,800 per family.þþPeople who attended Sunday's meeting said there was talk about striking or pushing for a ''work to rule'' slowdown. That would mean employees would perform no duties beyond the rules of the workplace, often spelled out in labor contracts, to reduce production.þþ''I think this is just the beginning of what's to come,'' said Janice Waller, 55, a third-shift production employee at the Wyoming plant, who began working for GM in 1985 before it spun off Delphi in 1999.þþ
Source: NY Times
