By Sharon Terlep Wall Street Journal July 18, 2008; Page B5
Detroit auto makers' most critical vehicles are proving valuable bargaining chips for the United Auto Workers as the union fights to organize the largely non-union parts industry.
A strike at a small auto-parts plant in Tennessee now threatens an important vehicle for General Motors Corp. -- the soon-to-launch Chevrolet Traverse crossover -- at a time when the struggling auto maker can least afford a costly production delay.
Workers at the Johnson Controls Inc. factory in Columbia, Tenn., walked off the job Wednesday because the company refused to recognize the union after workers voted overwhelmingly to unionize, local UAW officials said. Johnson Controls didn't return calls seeking comment.
Though the dispute over unionizing the factory, which employs 170 workers, has been going on for nearly two years, the union chose to send workers off the job just as production of the new Chevy is slated to begin.
It's a strategy the UAW employed earlier this year at another small parts operation in Lansing, Mich. -- a supplier for crossovers that at the time were in short supply. The strike forced GM to cut shifts at a nearby plant that builds the vehicles. The union eventually won representation.
"Everything is so tied together in this industry, that a strike at a small parts maker will very quickly lead to plant closures and layoffs," said Gary Chaison, a labor specialist at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.
Auto companies can't force a parts maker to accept the union, and typically stay out of the fray on an official level. But auto makers still bear considerable leverage as major customers, said Prof. Harley Shaiken, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley.
GM is working to assess the potential impact of a strike should it continue, company spokeswoman Sharon Basel said Thursday. Johnson Controls supplies seats and consoles for the Traverse.
GM's assembly plant in nearby Spring Hill, Tenn., already is building preproduction versions of the Traverse. Full-scale production is scheduled to begin in early September.
The Traverse, a three-row crossover, is entering the market at a time when soaring fuel prices have consumers favoring cars and crossovers far smaller than the Traverse. But the Traverse, Chevrolet's version of GM's well-received Buick Enclave and GMC Acadia, remains important because it will provide the auto maker's highest-volume brand with a spacious vehicle that is more fuel efficient than a large SUV.
Mike O'Rourke, president of UAW Local 1853, which represents workers at the Spring Hill factory, said he wants the Traverse to succeed but felt a strike was the only way to win representation. Of 172 workers at the factory, 170 voted to unionize, he said.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121634842019964529.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm