11-25-05,9:56am

Nov. 21—The six unions representing 33,000 hourly workers at Delphi Corp. vehemently rejected the company’s latest “final offer” Nov. 16 that would slash 24,000 jobs in three years and force workers to take huge pay cuts and accept major increases in health care costs.

Yet Delphi plans to reward some 500 “key employees” with up to 10 percent of the company’s stock and cash bonuses of $87.9 million.

“Delphi’s contract proposal was not designed to be a framework for an agreement but a road map for confrontation. [The offer] is ridiculous and they know it’s ridiculous,” says UAW President Ron Gettelfinger. Delphi, which declared bankruptcy Oct. 8, wants to lower wages by more than 60 percent, making it even harder for workers to pay the higher health care premiums, while salaried employees pay about the same cost for health care premiums next year as they did this year. Delphi also is preparing to ask the bankruptcy court for permission to turn over the pension plan to the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which insures private pensions. Even if Delphi drops the pension plan, regular payments to retirees are expected to continue at full levels. General Motors (GM) has guaranteed it would cover the portion of Delphi pensions not paid by the government if the supplier went bankrupt before 2007. GM spun off Delphi in 1999.

The six unions—the UAW, IUE-CWA, United Steelworkers, Electrical Workers, Machinists and Operating Engineers—formed the Mobilizing@Delphi coalition earlier this month to coordinate their fight against Delphi’s assault on working families and their communities. The coalition held its first meeting Nov. 16 at Solidarity House, the UAW headquarters in Detroit.

The group declared it will work together to deny Delphi any opportunity to set one plant against another or one union against another.

“We are united in our effort to craft a solution to Delphi’s current problems that makes sense for our members, for the company and its investors and for the communities where we work and live,” said the coalition in a joint statement.

“The AFL-CIO stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the Delphi workers and their unions. Together we will fight to force Delphi management to change the company’s anti-working family strategy,” says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

Meanwhile, the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), which represents 25 million members in more than 100 countries worldwide, pledged its support of the Delphi workers.

“The attempt by [Delphi CEO] Steve Miller to undermine the jobs, wages and working conditions of your members through a radical restructuring signifies a basic disdain and disrespect for workers and their livelihoods,” IMF General Secretary Marcello Malentacchi wrote in a letter to the six unions.