Car Parts Maker Moves to Break Its Union Deals

Car Parts Maker Moves to Break Its Union Deals
By MICHELINE MAYNARD
Published: April 1, 2006

DETROIT, March 31 — Delphi, the nation's biggest auto parts maker, on Friday asked a federal judge for permission to throw out some of its labor agreements, a move that could cost 20,000 union workers their jobs and leave thousands of others with less than half their current wages.

Delphi, which is operating in bankruptcy, wants the judge's permission to impose sharply lower wages and benefits on six unions, setting up a confrontation that its largest union, the United Automobile Workers, said could lead to a lengthy strike.

A strike could also cripple General Motors, which spun off Delphi in 1999 and remains its biggest customer. And any harm to G.M. could eviscerate the U.A.W.'s own influence as one of the nation's most socially progressive and powerful unions, while accelerating the slide of the American auto industry.

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David L. Gregory, professor of labor law at St. John's University in New York, said, "This is really for all practical purposes a frontal challenge to the reason for existence of the U.A.W."

Continued @ http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/01/business/01delphi.htm