UAW extends Chrysler, GM contracts after deadline

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By DEE-ANN DURBIN and TOM KRISHER

DETROIT (AP) - The United Auto Workers union extended its contracts with General Motors Co. (GM) and Chrysler Group LLC early Thursday after failing to meet a deadline to reach a new agreement.

GM broke off talks after midnight and said they would resume at 8 a.m. EDT Thursday. Chrysler didn't say when its talks would resume.

The decision has little impact on the 71,000 U.S. factory workers covered by the GM and Chrysler contracts. In the past, workers might have gone on strike if the UAW hadn't extended their contracts. But as part of their 2009 government bailouts, GM and Chrysler workers had to agree not to strike over wages.

"We should continue to do the things we do until we receive official notification otherwise," a UAW local official at a GM factory in Lordstown, Ohio, wrote Wednesday in a message posted on the local's website.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110915/D9POQVMO0.html

---

Photo:
In this June 17, 2010 file photo, United Auto Workers President Bob King addresses the auto worker's convention in Detroit. The United Auto Workers union extended its contracts with General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC early Thursday Sept. 15, 2011 after failing to meet a deadline to reach a new agreement. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)