Strike at Crucial GM Parts Plant Could Spread
DETROIT — A strike at a crucial General Motors Corp. parts plant threatened to spill over to a nearby car factory Friday and cause shortages at other GM facilities.
General Motors was forced to halt production Friday at a Chevrolet Cavalier and Pontiac Sunbird facility due to a strike at its Lordstown, Ohio, parts plant.
It was the second day GM was forced to halt production at one of its car plants in response to growing shortages of metal body panels and other parts. The walkout had already shut down the Saturn plant in Spring Hill, Tenn.
About 2,400 GM employees at the Lordstown fabrication plant walked off the job Thursday.
Meanwhile, a second UAW local, representing 7,000 hourly workers at the nearby Lordstown car assembly plant, where production was halted, threatened to strike next Friday after negotiations between that union and GM turned chilly.
“This morning, there was just a total change of attitude on the part of management,†said Bill Bowers, president of Union Local 1112, representing the car plant.
GM spokeswoman Linda Cook declined to comment on Bowers’ statement and said the auto maker hopes to resolve its labor disputes as quickly as possible.
Tension between the world’s largest auto maker and one of the nation’s most powerful unions has been building for months, since GM announced plans to close 21 North American parts and components plants and cut 50,000 blue-collar jobs by 1995.
Union officials at both Lordstown plants contend that GM is violating terms of the original 1990 contract by shifting union jobs to Mexico and asking hourly workers to increase their work load.
Cook declined to discuss how the talks were going but said negotiations were scheduled to resume today.
“They are continuing to meet, which is always a good sign,†Cook said.
Earlier, GM spokesman Charles Licari said the auto maker will wait until Monday before deciding if further plants should be closed.
Meanwhile, GM announced that it will sell the wheel-bearing business of its Delco Chassis division. The plants in Sandusky, Ohio; Bristol, Conn., and Cadiz, Spain, employ more than 3,000.
The company has decided to buy bearings from other companies, as do most other auto makers, so that it can focus on its core business of selling cars, said George C. Johnston, division general manager.
In another announcement, General Motors said it plans to sell 25 million shares of Class H common stock, mainly to cover its purchase of General Dynamics Corp.’s missile business. The sale could generate more than $600 million.
