American Axle seeks to close both its remaining Buffalo-area plants
Proposed deal to end strike would add Cheektowaga plant to the shutdown list
FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Updated: 05/11/08 6:23 PM
American Axle & Manufacturing wants to close its Cheektowaga machine shop as well as its Tonawanda forge, exiting the Buffalo area completely, it was revealed Saturday.
United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said he believed the union was close to a contract deal to end the 10-week-old strike against American Axle until the auto parts supplier added the Cheektowaga plant to the two others it had previously indicated it wanted to close, forges in Tonawanda and Detroit.
Gettelfinger told WWJ-AM in Detroit that the latest proposal from the company — with the loss of the Cheektowaga plant — came Friday.
“I think it definitely made it worse, because now we’re facing another closure,” Gettelfinger said.
He said the union planned to remain at the bargaining table through the weekend, but said: “I don’t know where we’re at because the company changes their position every time we turn around.”
American Axle spokeswoman Renee Rogers said she couldn’t comment on specifics of a proposal. She said talks continued Saturday and the company continues to seek a U. S. market-competitive labor agreement.
“We have consistently offered proposals significantly higher than the agreement that our competitors have, because we want to end this,” she said. “And they have been consistently turned down by the UAW.”
Of the 580 Buffalo-area workers on strike at American Axle, about 100 work at the Cheektowaga site on Walden Avenue.
American Axle idled its Buffalo plant, on East Delavan Avenue, late last year.
A decade ago, the three Buffalo-area plants employed 2,400 people.
About 3,600 UAW members went on strike Feb. 26 at five plants — in the Buffalo area and in Michigan — over wage and benefit cuts the company is seeking.
There had been hope for a settlement after General Motors Corp.’s surprise announcement Thursday that it will throw in $200 million to help end the 10-week walkout, which has crippled production of GM pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles.
Detroit-based American Axle gets 80 percent of its business from GM, its former parent. It makes axles, drive shafts and stabilizer bars for pickup trucks like the Chevrolet Silverado, GM’s top-selling vehicle.
Many of its U.S. competitors won deals from the UAW to pay newly hired workers about $14 per hour. But American Axle workers say they won’t take that big a pay cut from a company that made $37 million last year.
