DETROIT, Aug. 19 (AP) — Members of a union representing about 2,000 hourly workers of the Delphi Corporation, the auto parts supplier, voted to ratify a new four-year contract with Delphi, the union said.þþSeventy-five percent of International Union of Electronic Workers-Communications Workers of America members at locals with Delphi employees voted in favor of the deal, the union announced late Saturday.þþ“The past two years have been a difficult period for our members and local unions,” the union’s president, Jim Clark, said in a statement. “This vote gives members options about their future on the job and allows the union to start the rebuilding process.”þþThe United States Bankruptcy Court in New York approved the deal last week, so the contract goes into effect immediately, the Communications Workers’ industrial branch said. Delphi entered court protection in October 2005, and agreements with its unions are part of an effort to emerge from bankruptcy.þþA tentative deal had been reached Aug. 5 after the union warned of a possible strike if progress were not made on talks.þþDelphi, based in Troy, Mich., has said it needed union concessions to be able to compete against suppliers with cheaper labor costs. Delphi is the former parts division of General Motors, which spun it off in 1999.þþThe electronic workers union has members at three plants that Delphi plans to keep — in Warren, Ohio, and Brookhaven and Clinton, Miss. — as well as at three the company plans to sell or close, in Kettering and Moraine, Ohio, and Gadsden, Ala.þþOn Friday, the United Steelworkers announced a tentative agreement with Delphi covering about 900 of its Ohio workers. The Steelworkers union was the last one working with Delphi on a new contract. The union contracts required court approval.þþThe bankruptcy court last month approved Delphi’s new agreement with its biggest union, the United Automobile Workers, which represents 17,000 Delphi workers.þþ
Source: NY Times
