Delphi CEO downplays UAW problems

Delphi CEO Steve Miller (at right), in Japan on a tour of the company's Japanese customers and Delphi Asia-Pacific facilities, said that he expected a strike-free resolution of the company's ongoing negotiations with the UAW.

Although previously setting a January 20 "deadline" for asking the bankruptcy court to terminate Delphi's labor agreements if union negotiations hadn't reached a satisfactory conclusion, Miller is now saying that he expects agreement with the UAW "in principle" sometime "during the first quarter of 2006."

On the strike issue, Miller was equally optimistic, saying that the ongoing, continuous negotiations with the unions are reducing the risk of a strike.

Delphi's Asia-Pacific operations are not in Chapter 11, and Miller's trip is presumably meant to reassure Delphi's customers in the region that all is well, despite the problems with the company's bankrupt American operation.