The auto parts supplier Delphi Corp. has delayed filing its year-end financial statement with the government until it concludes its discussions with General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers on a restructuring plan.
Delphi, in a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said discussions with the parties were ongoing but “the outcome is uncertain and may have a significant impact on the company’s Dec. 31, 2005 financial statements.”
John D. Sheehan, Delphi’s vice president, chief restructuring officer and chief accounting officer, told federal regulators that the company could not make the filing “until the outcome of the current discussions is better understood.”
Negotiators for GM, Delphi and the UAW talked through the weekend about a complex attrition program that would reduce GM’s hourly work force, but a GM spokesman would not say Monday whether the sides were close to an agreement.
The talks focused on GM’s already stated plan to reduce the number of hourly employees by 30,000 between now and 2008, which could open slots for Delphi workers to return to GM, spokesman Jerry Dubrowski said. Other labor issues could be part of the discussions, he said.
Dubrowski said the talks were related to, but separate from, talks about Delphi’s overall restructuring plan.
“If we can also include in that Delphi, help to create opportunities for Delphi employees to return to GM as part of the larger discussion on Delphi reorganization, that’s advantageous as well,” he said.
Dubrowski said the parties “won’t be announcing a comprehensive Delphi agreement soon.”
A UAW spokesman had no comment on the talks, and a message was left Monday morning with a Delphi spokesman.
GM shares rose 26 cents to $21.39 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
GM spun off Troy-based Delphi, its former parts division, into a separate company in 1999. Delphi filed for bankruptcy protection Oct. 8, and it has been negotiating with the UAW about reducing labor costs. The company has said it will ask a bankruptcy judge to overturn union contracts if an agreement is not reached by March 31.
If the judge cancels Delphi’s contracts, the UAW has said it will strike. Another Delphi union, the International Union of Electronic Workers-Communications Workers of America, already has voted to authorize a strike.
The UAW and GM have said previously that they are discussing a program that would provide Delphi employees with retirement incentives.
