UAW urges adoption of cost-cutting Axle deal

By Kevin Krolicki and Soyoung Kim

DETROIT (Reuters) - American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc would cut hourly pay for unionized factory workers to $10 to $26 and offer payments of up to $105,000 for those who stay on at the lower wages, according to a summary of the proposed contract by the United Auto Workers.

The contract summary was distributed on Sunday at a union-organized meeting of several thousand UAW-represented American Axle workers at a Detroit high school.

Some 3,650 UAW workers are expected to vote as early as this week on whether to ratify the cost-cutting, four-year contract that would end a nearly 3-month-old strike that effectively shut down North American truck and SUV production for General Motors Corp and triggered thousands of layoffs.

The contract summary distributed by the UAW showed that the union succeeded pushing back some of American Axle's more drastic cost-cutting proposals, but had accepted sharply lower wages for both new and existing workers at the core of the proposed deal.

American Axle would close forging plants in Detroit and New York, but keep open a factory in Three Rivers, Michigan, at sharply lower wages.

The UAW also succeeded in getting the company to reverse a plan to close its Cheektowaga, New York, plant, according to the union contract document.

At the lowest wage, "factory support" workers at the company's Three Rivers plant would make $10 per hour. Truck drivers at that plant would make $12 per hour. New hires under the contract would start at $11.50 for production workers and $22 for skilled workers, according to the UAW document.

UAW workers would get a one-time signing bonus of $5,000 if the contract is ratified, the union said.