Delphi announces temporary layoffs due in part to American Axle strike

Delphi Electronics & Safety officials said Friday the continuing strike at American Axle & Manufacturing has contributed to temporary layoffs of 70 hourly workers at the company's Kokomo operations.

Delphi spokesman Jay Jiang said Friday "volume reductions" are the main cause of the layoffs, which will become effective Monday. Workers learned of the latest round of pending layoffs Thursday.

United Auto Workers Local 292 officials could not be reached for comment Friday.

The new layoffs follow the permanent layoffs of 130 workers in two waves, one in November and one in January. Those layoffs were all based on seniority, with some workers who had transferred from out-of-state Delphi operations losing the positions they'd just started in.

A strike by the UAW against American Axle is now in its second week, and has already idled at least seven General Motors assembly plants, with four more plants expected to be idled Monday if the strike continues. Both sides resumed negotiations Thursday.

Local Delphi workers affected by the January layoffs were offered buyouts of $1,500 per month of service with the company, with the caveat that accepting the buyouts came at the price of severing all ties with the company.

Delphi has already announced a goal of trimming its production work force to 6,000 in the U.S. The company had more than 33,000 hourly workers before entering court protection for re-organization in October 2005. In January, Delphi's current hourly work force was about 18,500.

Delphi Electronics & Safety has a work force of about 1,800 hourly and 2,300 salaried employees at its Kokomo operations.

Production workers in Kokomo assemble a variety of parts for the company, including engine control electronics, airbag electronics, sensors and integrated circuits.