DETROIT, Sept. 17 — The United Automobile Workers continued contract negotiations today with General Motors and Delphi, the parts giant spun off from G.M. in 1999.þþOn Monday, the union announced tentative four-year agreements with the other two Big Three domestic automakers, the Ford Motor Company and the Chrysler Group division of DaimlerChrysler. þþAn agreement was also reached with Visteon, a parts supplier that was spun off from Ford in 2000. þþÿNegotiations are continuing,ÿ a spokesman for G.M., Tom Wickham, said. Ron Gettelfinger, the union's president, said Monday evening that ÿour bargaining committee at General Motors and Delphi will continue to stay at the bargaining table until a tentative agreement is hammered out.ÿþþThe negotiations are complicated by the fact that G.M. and Delphi have an interlocking relationship that includes permitting workers to transfer back and forth between them. But G.M. and Delphi are also separate companies with distinct interests, negotiating at one table with the union. þþBy bringing in Ford and Chrysler within a day of each other, and soon after the last contract expired on Sunday at midnight, the union broke with tradition. Typically, the union reaches a deal with one company and takes weeks to reach a deal with a second. But this time, the union tried to negotiate with all of the Big Three at the same time, a sign of how the interests of management and labor are more aligned than in the past because of stiff competition from foreign based automakers like Toyota. þþA deal with G.M. and Delphi is expected this week.þþThe contracts with the Big Three and the two suppliers cover wages, pensions and health benefits paid to more than 300,000 active workers and more than 400,000 retirees and survivors of retirees who have died.þþThe fine print of the new contracts will not be released officially until workers ratify the deals. But people briefed on the deals said the union was largely successful in its effort to preserve its members' substantial health benefits while giving ground on other issues. Among the concessions are scaled-back wage increases and a selective lifting of a ban on plant closings. þþ
Source: NY Times
