Other GM Facilities Idled by Parts Strike : Autos: Fuel pumps and cruise controls are among items cut off. Negotiators continue to haggle.
FLINT, Mich. — A strike at a General Motors Corp. parts plant began to make itself felt throughout the auto maker’s assembly operations Thursday, as bargainers worked to end the dispute.
GM, the nation’s No. 1 car maker, sent day-shift workers at its Pontiac East truck plant in Pontiac home at 1 p.m. Thursday and canceled later shifts because of parts shortages caused by the strike, company spokesman John Shea said.
That added 3,100 workers to the 6,800 strikers already idled by the walkout that began at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
About 6,500 workers at the Lansing car assembly plant were told not to report for work today, GM spokeswoman Linda McGill said. The plant produces the Oldsmobile Achieva, Pontiac Grand Am and Buick Skylark.
The United Auto Workers union and GM resumed negotiations Thursday morning over the dispute at the AC Delco Flint East complex, which includes factories from two GM parts divisions.
There was some optimism that a settlement could be reached quickly, and the walkout had no impact on GM’s stock price, which closed at $40.25, up 25 cents on the New York Stock Exchange.
Still, the strike by UAW Local 651 has severed the flow of a variety of parts used in most GM vehicles and sold to other auto makers and retailers.
Most critical among the products are fuel pumps and cruise controls, said auto industry analyst Joseph Phillippi of Lehman Bros. in New York. Assembly plants that depend on these parts can’t function long without them. The parts are built and delivered as they are needed under a “just-in-time” supply setup.
“If it runs through the weekend, they could be out of production by early next week” at many GM plants around the country, Phillippi said.
GM said no other plants had been affected by the strike.
The issues in the dispute are similar to those that caused two GM strikes last year that quickly forced the company to close other, non-striking plants.
“People are getting run ragged with the overtime,” said Chuck Sain of Burton, a union health and safety representative who has worked at the complex since 1975.
Strong buyer demand for new cars and trucks has many auto plants running at maximum capacity, and the workers at Flint contend that GM has reneged on an agreement to hire 500 new employees at AC Delco. Another major issue in the talks is the company’s use of outside suppliers.
