Detroit – United Auto Workers members have voted to authorize a strike against auto parts supplier Delphi Corp., adding a new threat to already tense negotiations between the two sides and Delphi’s former parent and largest customer General Motors Corp.
The UAW said Tuesday that more than 95 percent of members who voted approved the strike authorization.
UAW members had been expected to approve the measure, which allows the international union to call a strike against Delphi if it feels one is necessary as the two sides bargain over wages. UAW locals were required to complete voting by Sunday.
Delphi spokesman Lindsey Williams said the company intends to keep negotiating with the UAW.
The UAW is by far the largest of Delphi’s six unions, representing 24,000 of the company’s 33,000 U.S. hourly workers.
The International Union of Electronic Workers-Communications Workers of America, which represents 8,000 workers, also has voted to authorize a strike.
Delphi, which filed for bankruptcy protection in October, has proposed cutting its U.S. hourly workers’ wages from $27 an hour to $16.50 an hour, or as low as $12.50 an hour if GM doesn’t agree to supplement those wages.
