DELPHI PACKARD Union OKs strike authorization

Union officials are meeting with the company Wednesday in Detroit.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
WARREN -- Marti Morn believes this is the time to stand up and fight.
A Delphi Packard Electric Systems laborer for 38 years, Morn was one of the members of Local 717 of the International Union of Electrical Workers who voted Sunday to give strike authorization to IUE negotiators.
Gary Reiser, Local 717 president, said 94 percent of those voting Sunday voted for the strike authorization. He would not give vote totals nor say how many of the union's approximately 3,800 members voted.
The workers intend to call a strike if Delphi receives permission from a bankruptcy judge to cancel union contracts and impose its own terms on workers.
Reiser said the overwhelming vote to strike is a message that the workers are taking the matter very seriously.
Morn agreed.
"The main idea is to send a message to the corporation that what they are doing is wrong," Morn said. "None of us want to go out [on strike] and lose wages and benefits."
Community support
Morn said she thinks community support is strong for the union members who spent most of the day Sunday voting. At one point around 1:30 p.m. there was a line outside the union hall, she said.
Reiser said he's never seen his membership more united.
"Ninety-four percent is a mandate," he said.
Other Delphi Packard locals were expected to vote this weekend, and Reiser and other union officials are meeting with company officials Wednesday in Detroit.
Reiser says he's optimistic because there are meetings planned.
Workers, however, say they are just angry over the entire situation.
"It just seems like the company was setting us up for failure," said Carli Wojciak, a 19-year Packard employee from Howland. "Anytime we wanted to do anything to help the company, they just tied our hands."
"We're all angry," Morn added. "We made this company. Warren, Ohio, made the money to give them the money to build plants in Mississippi and China."