Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 1, 1995                   TAG: 9504030066
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: KOKOMO, IND.                                 LENGTH: Medium

CHRYSLER PLANT STRIKE SETTLED; GM'S CONTINUES

Striking workers at Chrysler Corp.'s only automatic transmission factory reached a tentative agreement with management Friday after a walkout earlier in the day that had threatened to close the No.3 U.S. automaker's assembly plants.

``The strike is over; we'll try to get people back to work by 11 p.m.,'' union steward Jesse Hamm said Friday evening.

Details of the proposed pact weren't immediately available, but a Chrysler spokesman confirmed that one had been reached.

Also Friday, employees walked out of a General Motors Corp. truck plant in Pontiac, Mich., taking down one-third of GM's capacity for building fast-selling full-size pickup trucks.

Both disputes involved efforts by the United Auto Workers to retain or add jobs in an industry that has cut tens of thousands of U.S. jobs in recent years.

``I don't think either side wants this,'' said 22-year Chrysler employee Tom Walsh as 5,700 members of UAW Local 685 walked out of the company's Kokomo plant.

Nearly 90 percent of Chrysler's cars and trucks use transmissions made at the Kokomo plant. The Kokomo workers want Chrysler to commit to producing next-generation truck transmissions there.

The automaker, which plans to introduce the transmissions in the late 1990s, has not said where they will be built. If production is moved elsewhere, several hundred jobs at Kokomo might be cut.

``We'd like to keep the jobs here for our kids who are growing up, so they'll have a decent future and decent jobs,'' said Dennis Brewer, a 17-year Chrysler veteran.

The strike shut down GM's Pontiac East truck assembly plant, exacerbating the automaker's problems in meeting buyer demand. But, unlike the Chrysler walkout, other GM plants wouldn't be forced to close immediately .

UAW Local 594, which represents the 5,500 workers on strike at the truck plant and an engineering center, wants the company to create jobs at the plant for 1,500 workers whose positions were eliminated when GM closed its Pontiac West truck assembly plant in December.

GM has faced a string of strikes in the past 15 months, most related to work-force size.

GM agreed to add several hundred workers at its Buick City complex in Flint, Mich., to end a four-day strike in October. In January, a similar walkout at a Flint parts complex was resolved with a GM commitment to add several hundred jobs.