UAW members vote on American Axle deal

United Auto Workers members at two Buffalo-area plants of American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. voted today after learning specifics of a tentative labor agreement that could settle a long strike at the facilities and three plants in Michigan.

Voting was expected to continue through late afternoon but results won't be announced until after members of a Detroit UAW local cast ballots on May 22, a union official said.

If the four-year agreement is ratified, it would end a three-month walkout by 3,650 hourly workers, including 510 at the Tonawanda Forge plant and Cheektowaga machining facility.

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Terms of the tentative contract, announced Saturday, reportedly include closing both forge plants, wage cuts and buyout offers ranging from $85,000 for workers with the company fewer than 10 years to $140,000 for those with 10 years or more of seniority.

Wages would be slashed as much as $10 an hour for some jobs, and employees will make between $10 and $26 an hour in wages, according to the proposal disclosed at a UAW membership meeting Sunday in Detroit.

The agreement gives workers a $5,000 signing bonus, lump-sum cost of living adjustments and a variety of options to take money and leave the company, reports said.

Two informational meetings involving members of UAW Local 846, which represents workers at both locations, were underway at UAW Region 9 headquarters in Amherst at 11 this morning,

The strike began Feb. 26 when contract talks in Detroit broke down over the wage and benefits cuts the company was demanding.

Since then, as the strike plodded along and tensions grew while negotiations sputtered, the company said it wanted to close two plants -- the Tonawanda plant which has an hourly and salaried workforce of 630, and another forge in Detroit -- and proposed shutting down the Cheektowaga operation.

Under the tentative agreement, the Cheektowaga facility will remain open.