• In this Issue >
  • Features
    • From the President
    • United Way honors Gettelfinger
    • PRB reports record of union fairness
    • Union security agreements
    • 34th Constitutional Convention
    • Roomful of Fighters
    • IEB includes 5 new regional directors
    • Delegates approve fund
    • Social Justice Awards cross generations
    • First-timers share passion for union
    • Solidarity across borders
    • From the floor
    • Conventional wisdom
  • Union Front
    • Stephen P. Yokich Duplex
    • Organizing Roundup
    • Dear Mr. Gettelfinger
    • Delphi Update
    • March to protect American dream
    • Member Minute
  • Departments
    • From the Readers
    • UAW 101
    • Safer Work I
    • Safer Work II
    • Still Solid
    • Skilled Trades
    • Workers' Words
    • Phipps' Tips
    • Solidarity Index / Past Issues

DELPHI UPDATE

Adjournment is ‘step in the right direction’

Court proceedings began May 9 on Delphi’s motions to reject its labor agreements with the UAW and five other unions and modify retiree benefits.

A month later, those Section 1113-1114 hearings were adjourned until Aug. 11 to allow Delphi and its unions to focus attention on bargaining without the distraction of current litigation.

“As the UAW has maintained from the beginning, Delphi’s Section 1113-1114 motions and the ensuing hearings have functioned as an impediment to negotiation of the difficult issues at hand,” said UAW President Ron Gettelfinger in a joint statement with former UAW Vice President Richard Shoemaker.

“Delphi’s decision to adjourn the hearings is a step in the right direction, and the UAW supported the request for an adjournment,” they added.

In addition, the UAW, General Motors and Delphi announced in June a supplement to the Special Attrition Program Agreement reached in March. The supplement requires court approval since Delphi is in Chapter 11 proceedings.

Two additional options will be available to all eligible workers at Delphi: a buyout option and a pre-retirement option for those with 26 years but less than 27 years of credited service.

UAW-represented Delphi employees have been offered buyouts to sever all ties with Delphi and GM except vested pension benefits. Under the supplement terms, buyout payments of $140,000 will be available to employees with 10 or more years of seniority or credited service, whichever is greater. Traditional employees with less than 10 years of seniority are eligible for $70,000. Employees hired under the Supplemental New Hire Agreement before March 22 are eligible for a buyout payment amount prorated to $40,000.

(For more details, visit Delphi Update at uaw.org.)

“Most people are glad Delphi was willing to negotiate a soft landing, but it is still pushing people into a decision they were not ready to make, especially for workers with kids still at home,” said Larry Mathews, a UAW Local 651 member with more than 30 years’ at GM’s Delphi East plant in Flint.

Members at 21 UAW-represented Delphi facilities voted overwhelmingly in May to authorize the UAW to call a strike should Delphi use its bankruptcy court proceedings to unilaterally impose changes to the UAW-Delphi collective bargaining agreements.

The UAW is Delphi’s largest union, representing 24,000 hourly workers.

Led by the UAW, Delphi’s six unions last November formed a coalition — Mobilizing@Delphi — representing more than 33,000 active Delphi workers.

Jennifer John and Sam Stark contributed to this story.