Buffalo News (New York), June 28, 2007, Thursday

Copyright 2007 Buffalo News

Buffalo News (New York)

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News

June 28, 2007 Thursday

SECTION: BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL NEWS

HEADLINE: Delphi workers vote on wage-cut proposal: Local results will be announced today; national vote tally due on Friday

BYLINE: Fred O. Williams, The Buffalo News, N.Y.

BODY:

Jun. 28--Union workers at Delphi Corp. in Lockport voted Wednesday on whether to accept a 40 percent cut in "traditional" autoworker wages in return for assurances of continued work at the bankrupt parts maker.

"They're furious, there's no doubt about it," said United Auto Workers Local 686 Unit 1 President Paul Siejak. "We're here because of mismanagement."

The deal -- reached between Delphi, the UAW and General Motors Corp. last week -- would cut traditional wages averaging $27 an hour to between $14.50 and $18.50. Affected workers would receive payments of $35,000 a year for three years.

If approved by workers and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the four-year deal could end Delphi's 2z-year bankruptcy reorganization.

Results of the local vote are expected to be known this morning, with national results available Friday.

Analysts expect a lopsided victory for the plan, which has the backing of union leadership. Of the 17,000 UAW members voting nationally, about 13,000 are newly hired workers whose pay is unaffected by the

proposal. They would, however, receive severance under the plan if their jobs are cut in restructuring.

Lockport, however, remains a center for senior, relatively highly paid autoworkers. Of the 4,000 remaining companywide, about 1,200 work in Lockport.

"The feedback I'm getting is that workers are adamantly opposed [to the contract]," Siejak said.

"No way," said Frank Johnston of Cheektowaga as he left the UAW union hall in Lockport on Wednesday. "I rejected it."

"Enough is enough," said Gerry Dennis of Lockport, who has worked at the plant for 26 years. "I'm getting out while I can."

Siejak said that workers face a bitter choice, but one that preserves endangered auto industry jobs. As part of the deal, former parent GM will continue to source future-generation products from Lockport.

"Without this agreement, we have nothing," he said. "You could make $50 an hour, but if you don't have work, you have nothing."

The consequences of the vote will go beyond the 2,200 hourly production workers who remain at the Delphi Thermal complex. As the region's largest manufacturer and the largest private employer in Niagara County, Delphi is a mainstay of the local economy.

"I think it's paramount they get an agreement," said Lockport Mayor Michael Tucker, who took a buyout to leave his job at Delphi last year. "In a work stoppage, nobody wins."

Lockport is one of four U.S. factories that will remain in the reorganized Delphi. Ten others are closing, while GM or its nominee will run others. GM spun off Delphi, its former parts arm, in 1999. Its contract with the UAW expires Sept. 14.

"There's absolutely nobody happy with getting wages cut in half," said Arthur Wheaton, an instructor at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations in Buffalo. But "the options are not good," he added. "If you vote it down, then what happens?"

News Staff Reporter Bill Michelmore contributed to this report.

fwilliams@buffnews.com

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