Autoblog

GM is still dancing with the UAW over contract issues, now its doing it with local plants regarding items that weren't in the national agreement. However, The General has managed to wring two more days to negotiate before workers at its Fairfax assembly plant in Kansas City, KS, walk out. The 2,600 workers of UAW Local 31 churn out 3,100 Malibus every week.

Local contracts -- as opposed to the national agreement -- concern work-rule, seniority and other non-economic issues. The UAW Local says that GM isn't following the blueprint of the national agreement and is pushing for too much. GM says it is negotiating in good faith.

And Fairfax isn't the only plant affected. Strikes and idling due to rejected contracts have taken place at GM plants in Parma, Ohio, Lansing, Michigan, and Detroit-Hamtramck. Those interruptions have halted production of the Buick Lucerne and Enclave, Cadillac CTS, Saturn Outlook, and GMC Acadia. The Hamtramck plant is calling workers back, which will get the Lucerne and CTS in production again, but now the Malibu is on the block. GM has a 37-day supply of the hot commodity, and it also has another plant that builds Malibus. If GM and UAW Local 31 can't come to an agreement, Malibu production at the Fairfax plant will cease tomorrow.

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req.]

General Motors has been dealing with a lot of strikes lately. The United Auto Worker union's strike against one of its main suppliers, American Axle, has been reducing the General's inventory of trucks and SUVs for about a month now, and also threatened production of the Chevy Malibu before the automaker found more parts to keep production going. Just yesterday the UAW walked out of GM's Lansing Delta Township plant where the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn are built. The latter strike is over what the UAW has only referred to as "local contract issues". Whatever those are, they are important enough to come back today and threaten GM with a walk out at its Fairfax plant, one of the two facilities that builds the hot-selling Chevy Malibu. The union has set a five-day ultimatum, and says it will walk out on Malibu production next Tuesday, April 22 if an agreement isn't reached. The other plant building Malibus is in the Detroit suburb of Orion, but it only builds 2,100 Malibus per week compared to the 3,100 units per week built at the Fairfax plant. Clearly the UAW knows exactly where GM is most vulnerable, and its aiming a strike right at it.


[Source: Automotive News, subs. req'd]