Local UAW votes to strike

enewscourier.com

May 09, 2006 10:33 pm

— Members of United Auto Workers Local 2195 voted overwhelmingly Tuesday for a strike.
UAW President Terry Scruggs, of Athens, said the local members voted 96 percent to support a strike at the Limestone County Delphi complex. A strike, though, must be approved by the UAW membership nationwide and that vote may come later.
“Unions nationwide have until May 14 to vote,” Scruggs said. “The vote we had Tuesday came from our membership.”
Meanwhile, Delphi Corp. argued Tuesday that it must be given the right to cancel its labor contracts, telling a bankruptcy judge that move is critical to its cost cutting and reorganization.
Delphi, seeking power that could lead to a devastating strike, told Judge Robert Drain that it has little choice.
“Without transforming Delphi’s North American operation to be competitive in North America, let alone globally, these debtors cannot reorganize and the corporation will fail,” Delphi attorney Jack Butler told Drain and a packed courtroom.
“Simply stated, Delphi must become competitive to survive,” Butler said.
But lawyers for the United Auto Workers union argued that letting the company cancel its contracts would give Delphi an overwhelming and unfair advantage, allowing it to force deep wage cuts and rob its workers of long-promised benefits.
“This is like a poker game where they have an ace card given to them by the court before the rest of the cards are dealt,” said Bruce Simon, an attorney for the UAW.
“We’ll see what the evidence shows,” Drain said.
The hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York is expected to last for several days and Drain is not expected to rule for weeks.