Battenberg tries to defuse two-tier wage issue

Delphi Automotive Systems President J.T. Battenberg III knows that one way to bring Delphi's 14 money-losing plants into the black would be for the UAW to accept a lower wage structure at Gm's parts plants. But he also knows it's politically not likely. So Mr. Battenberg is meeting at least once a month to review cost-cutting options with Richard Shoemaker, vice president of the UAW's GM Dept., and other union officials. "It's unfair to characterize the UAW negatively," Mr. Battenberg says. "(Former GM Chairman) John Smale and I recently visited one of our UAW plants in Saginaw that is shipping steering systems to Japan, Europe and Brazil. It's clearly world-class. Two-tier wages are important, but it's not the only or most important issue." Delphi also boasts that it has hit its outside business goal one year early. The target: draw 30% of sales from outside Gm's North American operations by the end of 1996. Of its $26.4 billion in 1995 revenue, $9.2 billion came from outside customers, although $2.6 billion of that went to Gm's European and Brazilian operations.