Supplier's chairman remains hopeful an equitable settlement can be found

He said he has received many angry e-mails.
STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
WASHINGTON -- Robert S. Miller, chairman and CEO of Delphi Corp., said Friday that the proposal to unions by the country's largest auto supplier was not intended to provoke a strike and that he remains confident a deal can be reached in the coming months.
Miller, who goes by Steve, met with reporters Friday in Washington and said Delphi workers "understand that no good can come from a strike."
"We hope to arrive at an equitable settlement without court-authorized rejection of the labor contracts. Rejection results in a free-for-all wherein management can impose contract modifications, and the union is free to strike. Nobody wants to end up there."
A few workers at Delphi Packard Electric Systems said earlier this week that they didn't support a strike. They also said they hadn't heard any talk of a strike at the company's North River Road complex in Warren.
Officials at Local 717 of the International Union of Electrical Workers, which represents about 3,800 area Packard workers, are not commenting about the negotiations.
News reports have indicated that Delphi workers in Buffalo have been told by United Auto Workers officials to prepare for a strike.
Miller said he had seen no indications of work slowdowns at American plants since the company's bankruptcy filing earlier this month, but he recognized that many workers are upset with him.
"They're very angry with me. You ought to see the e-mails I get ripping at my hide," Miller said.
He said "not all my plants are going to survive this," but said no decisions have been made on any of the facilities.
Reported demands
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Delphi is demanding concessions from the UAW beyond wage and benefits cuts that could undermine the union's ability to organize new members and hasten its deterioration.
The company wants greater leeway to hire nonunion temporary and contract workers without union input and to buy materials and parts from nonunion sub-suppliers, the paper said, citing a summary of the company's demands.
Delphi also is proposing to move large numbers of traditional union jobs outside the union's protection. Jobs such as machine repairmen, carpenters and tool builders all would be outsourced to other companies, the paper reported.
Outsourced jobs also include the yard maintenance, snow removal and janitorial jobs, the paper said.
The Michigan-based supplier also seeks to cut back on the number of elected union officials at each plant representing workers in negotiations and grievances, while also eliminating union officials who oversee retraining or employee-assistance programs, the paper said.
Delphi also aims to eliminate the long-standing requirement that any purchaser of a Delphi plant maintain the union and assume the existing collective bargaining agreement, the paper said.
Proposal
The company is negotiating with the UAW, which represents about 25,000 of its workers, and the IUE, which represents about 8,500. The company has told the IUE that it wants to reduce that union's work force to 3,000.
Delphi also wants to cut base wages to between $9.50 and $10.50 an hour for production workers and $19 for skilled trades workers. New production workers would start at a base rate of $9 an hour. Delphi hourly workers currently earn $27 an hour or more.
The proposal would also freeze Delphi's pension plan and accept no new participants after Jan. 1. Delphi also could reduce retiree benefits or terminate the pension plan, and hourly workers would be asked to pay health care deductibles for the first time.