General Motors is the lead target of the United Auto Worker union for their potential strike target in the contract conciliation with the Detroit Three, said two local officials of the group last Thursday.
Requesting for anonymous identity because the negotiations are considered confidential, the two UAW officials said that their local members have already received a notice last Thursday afternoon saying that GM in fact will be the lead.
Expiration of UAW contract with GM, Chrysler LLC, Ford Motor Co, is due on Friday midnight.
In regular conditions, the union talks with the lead company, in behalf of the other two. According to auto industry analysts, GM has the healthiest financial condition among the three.
Ford and Chrysler spokespersons said last Thursday that their companies have compromised for indefinite extensions with the UAW. The extensions can be canceled with three days prior notice.
"We're going to continue to work together," said Marcey Evans, spokeswoman for Ford.
Bargaining had formally begun last July and had been going since then, even before but not on formal conditions. Until Thursday, the talks are said to be successful but according to some union members at GM plants (where are made), they are told to prepare in case the need for a strike arises.
Halls to be strike headquarters are under preparation like one in a Cadillac assembly. Workers had also been preparing picket lines, according to the union president of UAW local 652 Chris Sherwood.
Sherwood had been thoroughly updated on how the negotiations had been doing by one of the members of the bargaining committee he is continuously in touch with. According to his source, the compromise had some bad turn last Wednesday night.
"Apparently from last night until this morning, everything's changed," Sherwood said. "I've never been asked to get my hall ready for a strike in the last four contracts."
Comments from top persons involved like GM spokesman Tom Wickham and UAW international spokesman Roger Kerson have not been given.
For Harley Shaiken, an expert of Labor issues in the University of California in Berkeley, it's hard to tell if the strike preparation is a drama or not.
"There's a fine line between theater and substance in negotiations," Shaiken said.
"Given the stakes, given the complexity, given the tension, you've got a temporary derailment. It's unclear whether it's more serious than that."
For David Cole, the chairman of Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, either side cannot manage a strike.
"I would expect some tension down near the end. At some point in any of these negotiations you get to a point where there's some tough talk. It just normally arrives a lot earlier than this," he said.
There were no strikes that occurred during contract renewals in 1999 and 2003. In 1996, there were individual strikes at two GM plants but there had been no nationwide strikes during negotiations since 1976 because of the closing of some Ford plants.
In 2003, the union agreed to settle with the three companies and not choosing a strike target until now. In 1998, GM workers walked out for 54 days in two GM plants costing the company $2.2 billion.
The three Detroit-based auto makers had lost $15 billion combined last year making this year's negotiation with the UAW a critical one. There had been sales losses due to high gasoline prices. The result, they have made thousands of their workers jobless in an effort to compete with Japanese automakers.
