General Motors and the UAW offered opposite perspectives on the progress of contract talks after the union named GM as the “target” company with which it will negotiate first.
UAW Vice President Terry Dittes, who leads the union’s GM department, told workers in a letter that bargaining with GM is moving slowly, with just eight days left before the national contract expires.
The Associated Press reported that Dittes’ letter said talks have been slowed by the company’s responses to UAW proposals.
However, a message to GM plant leaders from manufacturing Vice President Phil Kienle that was obtained by the Free Press said the company is “working hard to understand and respond to UAW proposals, and we have offered to meet as often as needed.”
“I can assure you that we are moving the process along as quickly as we can,” Kienle wrote. “Our goal is to reach an agreement that builds a stronger future for our employees and the company.”
Many union members have been angry with GM since November, when it announced planned idling of four U.S. plants — Lordstown in Ohio; transmission plants in Warren and near Baltimore; and Detroit-Hamtramck, which of the four is the only one continuing to operate.
At the same time, a cloud hangs over the UAW as a long-running corruption investigation that started with the union’s joint training center with Fiat Chrysler has spread to a UAW worker in the GM Department. Current union President Gary Jones’ suburban Detroit home was raided last week, as was the California home of Jones’ predecessor, Dennis Williams.
The four-year contract between the UAW and all three Detroit automakers expire at midnight Sept. 14. Union members voted overwhelmingly to give their leaders authority to call a strike.
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