Delphi workers OK historic cuts in wages

DETROIT — Workers represented by Delphi Corp.’s largest union have approved a historic contract agreement that cuts wages for longtime employees of the auto parts maker but secures thousands of jobs at plants that once were in jeopardy.

The ratification announced Friday comes after two years of sometimes contentious negotiations and averts a threatened strike that could have crippled Delphi’s biggest customer and former parent, General Motors Corp.

The pact will make Delphi more competitive as it tries to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It comes only weeks before the UAW begins contract talks with GM, Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group.

Analysts have said the deal likely will become the pattern for other unions at Delphi, which was GM’s parts-making operation until it was spun off as a separate company in 1999. It also could set wages in the rest of the domestic parts industry and perhaps affect the contract talks with the Detroit automakers.

Sixty-eight percent of the workers who voted were in favor of the new four-year pact, while 32 percent were against it, the United Auto Workers’ leadership said in a statement Friday.

About 17,000 workers at 18 Delphi facilities across the U.S. were eligible to vote on the deal, which also allows some plant closings and cuts wages for longtime workers from around $27 per hour to a pay range for everyone that runs from $14 to $18.50.

The deal was historic because the union has almost always made gains in wages and benefits.

A total of 11,225 workers turned out for the vote, with 7,613 in favor and 3,612 voting against it, said a local union official who didn’t want to be named because the breakdown of the vote had not been released by the international union.

The pact clears the table for the UAW to concentrate on its crucial contract talks with GM, Ford and Chrysler, said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.