Strike at Auto Parts Supplier Delphi Now Considered Less Likely After Buyout Deal

The New York Times reported yesterday that Delphi, the largest auto parts supplier, has made significant progress in eliminating the possibility of a strike by entering into an agreement this past Friday with GM and the United Auto Workers which would permit it to offer employee buyouts to all 24,000 of its employees.

According to the article:

The plan, which G.M. will finance, expands a plan announced in March that covered 13,000 Delphi workers, and comes on the eve of the union's leadership convention, which begins Monday in Las Vegas.

Agreement on the buyouts allows the two companies and the union to focus negotiations on other crucial issues like the level of wage and benefit cuts at Delphi, the amount G.M. is willing to pay for buyouts and to subsidize workers' wages, and the number of workers who will be left at Delphi, once the cuts are made.

Most analysts believe that this buyout program will take away the impetus for a strike and that GM will be able to get further concessions from the UAW as part of its restructuring program now that negotiations can continue without the distraction of a potential strike.

Kudos to David Gregory (St. Johns) for being quoted in the article!

PS