Deadlines Loom For Automakers To Avoid Costly Strikes At 2 Plants

Strikes threatened today at automotive plants in Michigan and Indiana could shut down most of Chrysler Corp.’s assembly operations and a put a big dent in General Motors Corp.’s ability to build pickup trucks.

United Auto Workers locals representing hourly employees at Chrysler’s automatic transmission plant in Kokomo, Ind., and at GM’s truck plant in Pontiac, Mich., have set 10 a.m. EST deadlines for agreements to head off walkouts.

Both disputes boil down to job security, although the stated topic for negotiations at Kokomo is unspecified health and safety issues. Sources close to the Kokomo situation, who spoke on condition they not be identified, said the talks have focused on Chrysler’s plans to produce a new generation of truck transmissions late in the decade.

The 5,700 workers at Kokomo want the company to commit to producing the new transmissions at their plant. They believe hundreds of jobs will be lost if the new components are built at another Chrysler facility or by an outside contractor such as New Venture Gear, a Chrysler-GM joint venture that makes manual transmissions for Chryslers.

A strike at Kokomo would cut off the supply of automatic transmissions to assembly plants in Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, Delaware, Ontario, Mexico and Austria. That would force them to shut down or dramatically curtail operations within days. Nearly 90 percent of the cars and trucks Chrysler builds are equipped with automatics from Kokomo.

A strike also would curtail operations at Diamond-Star Motors Corp. in Normal, Ill., which builds cars for Chrysler and Mitsubishi.

Union officials have said they will delay a strike if there is progress in the talks. “We’re optimistic, I guess,” Larry Scott of Local 685 in Kokomo said Thursday. “We’re just hanging in there.”

Peace seemed less likely by today between GM and Local 594, which represents 5,500 workers at the Pontiac East truck plant and an associated engineering center. About one-third of GM’s fast-selling fullsize Chevrolet and GMC pickups are built there.

Local 594 wants the company to add jobs at the plant for 1,500 workers whose positions were eliminated when GM closed its Pontiac West truck assembly plant in December. About 300 workers from the closed plant were hired in January to staff a third shift in paint and body shops at Pontiac East. The remaining 1,500 have “protected” status under the UAW contract, which means they continue to receive full pay.

GM would like to persuade them to transfer to plants in other cities where it needs employees, but under the UAW contract, the union must agree to that.

“We are continuing discussions,” GM’s Sherrie Childers said Thursday, declining to say what was being discussed. “We’re going to work very hard to avoid a work stoppage.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with story: Strike ramifications Chrysler: A strike at the Kokomo, Ind., automatic transmission plant would cut off supply of automatic transmissions to Chrysler assembly plants. Nearly 90 percent of Chrysler vehicles have automatic transmissions from the Kokomo plant. General Motors: A strike at GM’s Pontiac East truck plant wil affect production of some popular models. About one-third of GM’s fast-selling full-size Chevrolet and GMC pickups are built there.