American Axle, UAW talks carry on
Workers at American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc.'s two Buffalo-area facilities are watching the clock today as time ticks away on a four-year contract that is set to expire one minute before midnight.
The Detroit-based auto parts supplier (NYSE: AXL) and the United Auto Workers union have been holding negotiations.
The UAW represents several hundred hourly workers at the company's forge plant in the Town of Tonawanda and a machining operation in Cheektowaga.
Production at American Axle's Buffalo plant stopped in December and the E. Delavan Avenue facility houses only a skeleton work force for maintenance and other functions fast cash loans online payday loan.
The 2004 contract negotiations resulted in a strike which, though brief, caused General Motors Corp. to lose about five shifts of production at its light-truck plants in Indiana and Michigan because of parts shortages.
The company supplies components for GM's entire light-truck lineup.
An extended strike could shut down all GM truck output.
GM's Tonawanda engine plant produces engines for heavy-duty trucks such as Chevrolet Kodiak and GMC Top Kick.