The Wall Street Journal - 07.10.2019

A10| Monday, October 7, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

WORLD NEWS

with their thinking.

But when GM revealed its

counter offer on Sunday morn-

ing, union negotiators were

taken aback by what they felt

was a proposal far different

from the union’s latest one,

this person said.

“You didn’t even have a

professional courtesy to ex-

plain why you could not accept

or why you rejected our pack-

age proposal for each item we

addressed,” Mr. Dittes wrote

in a letter Sunday to GM’s top

labor relations executive that

was released publicly by the

union. “The law and basic de-

cency require no less.”

Mr. Dittes, in a separate let-

ter to members Sunday that

said talks had turned for the

worse, blamed the company for

a lack of progress, saying its

proposal failed to provide

enough job security in the next

four-year contract.

As of Saturday, the biggest

remaining issues were whether

or how to shorten the eight-

year time period it takes for a

new worker at GM to reach full

pay of about $30 an hour and

providing enhancements to

workers’ pensions and 401(k)

contributions, according to

people close to the talks.

New hires start out at about

$17 an hour and get yearly

raises until they reach full pay.

GM and its two Detroit

peers—Ford Motor Co. and

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

NV—have said they need the

graduated pay scale to keep

labor costs affordable.

The need to secure jobs has

been among the UAW’s top de-

mands. Union negotiators typi-

cally press the company to

make commitments on how

much it will invest in U.S. fac-

tories and what new models it

will build in these plants as a

way to guarantee existing jobs,

as well as create new ones.

The company’s decision in

November 2018 to indefinitely

idle four UAW-represented fac-

tories—including assembly

plants in Detroit and Lords-

town, Ohio—early on drove a

wedge between the two sides.

GM, in an offer made public af-

ter the UAW called the strike,

said it had solutions for Detroit

and Lordstown and offered

wage increases and plant in-

vestments to create thousands

Both GM and picketing workers are feeling the financial strains. of new jobs.

JEREMY HOGAN/SOPA IMAGES/ZUMA PRESS

tory output at more than 30

GM plants in the U.S., stifled

production for auto-parts sup-

pliers and resulted in tempo-

rary layoffs for thousands of

non-UAW factory workers.

Dealers are struggling to get

replacement parts to fix vehi-

cles, forcing customers to wait

longer, and some analysts have

warned the work stoppage

could tip Michigan’s slowing

economy into a recession.

Both the company and pick-

eting workers, who aren’t cur-

rently receiving a GM paycheck,

are also feeling the financial

strains as the strike drags on.

“It’s very disappointing,”

said Julaynne Trusel, a worker

at GM’s Detroit assembly plant,

who said she caught a cold on

the picket line this weekend as

temperatures dropped in south-

east Michigan. “Everybody is

ready to go back to work.”

Analysts estimate GM is los-

ing $50 million to $100 million

a day from lost factory produc-

tion, a sum that is expected to

make a bigger dent in the com-

pany’s second-half performance

the longer the work stoppage

goes on. JPMorgan Chase last

week pegged GM’s losses at

more than $1 billion through

two weeks of the strike.

GM last week idled its

pickup-truck plant in Mexico

Continued from Page One

Clash in

Detroit

Talks

Boris Johnson’s new plan for

managing the Irish border after

Brexit doesn’t appeal to Jona-

than Lecky, managing director

of Fleming Agri-Products Ltd.

Based in Newbuildings, a

town on the westernmost edge

of Northern Ireland, Mr.

Lecky’s firm makes farm ma-

chinery sold all over the

world. He is used to dealing

with the tariffs and paperwork

needed when trading with dis-

tant markets. But he can’t

imagine doing the same for

the 30% of his annual sales

that go to the Republic of Ire-

land, a few miles away over

the River Foyle.

“I look out of my office win-

dow and I can see Donegal,” he

said, referring to the county in

the Irish republic that borders

Northern Ireland to the west.

“The idea of having any form

of charge or tariff is very diffi-

cult to contemplate.”

The U.K. prime minister’s

plan makes that a possibility. It

calls for the U.K., Northern Ire-

land included, to exit the Euro-

pean Union’s common customs

BYJASONDOUGLAS

The River Fane tracks part of the Ireland-Northern Ireland border. The U.K. proposes Northern Ireland follow some EU trade rules after Brexit.

DAN KITWOOD/GETTY IMAGES

The most controversial

“new path” scheduled for dis-

cussion over the next three

weeks is the possibility of or-

daining married men to serve

as priests in the sparsely pop-

ulated region, where Catholic

parishes sometimes go for

months without a visit from a

priest.

The synod’s official working

document calls for considering

the ordination of “elders, prefer-

ably indigenous, respected and

accepted by their community,

even if they have an existing

and stable family, in order to

ensure availability of the sacra-

ments that accompany and sus-

tain the Christian life.” Such

candidates for the priesthood

are known as viri probati, Latin

for “proven men.”

The pope has said that the

“door is always open” to mar-

ried priests in remote places

such as the Amazon or the Pa-

cific islands. He has also said

he needs to pray and reflect

further on the question.

The ratio of Catholics to

priests in South America is

7,200 to one, almost four

times the ratio in North Amer-

ica, according to Vatican sta-

tistics for 2017. In parts of the

Amazon, the ratio is more

than 8,000 to one. The world-

wide ratio has risen sharply in

recent decades, to about 3,

to 1 from 1,900 to 1 in 1980.

VATICAN CITY—Pope Fran-

cis formally opened a meeting

of bishops that will debate

whether the Catholic Church

should loosen its 1,000-year-

old requirement of celibacy for

priests.

The potentially momentous

debate pits those who say or-

daining married men could re-

lieve the church’s clergy short-

age against those who warn

that doing so would under-

mine the distinctive character

of the priesthood.

In his homily on Sunday, at

Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica,

the pope didn’t refer specifi-

cally to the celibacy debate,

but called generally for inno-

vation in the church’s minis-

try: “If everything continues

as it was, if we spend our days

content that ‘this is the way

things have always been done,’

then the gift vanishes, smoth-

ered by the ashes of fear and

concern for defending the sta-

tus quo.”

This month’s Vatican meet-

ing, called a synod, is dedi-

cated to “new paths for the

church” in South America’s

Amazon region. Organizers

have stressed the ecological

topics on the agenda, includ-

ing deforestation and other

threats to indigenous commu-

nities.

BYFRANCISX.ROCCA

Pope Opens Debate

On Celibacy Rules

For Catholic Priests

area in around two years.

Northern Ireland would also

continue to follow EU regula-

tions covering food and indus-

trial goods—even if the rest of

the U.K. gets rid of them.

Such provisions, say execu-

tives, would heap costs on

Northern Irish firms used to

untrammeled trade with the

rest of the U.K. and their south-

ern neighbor. The paperwork

alone would balloon. Absent a

free-trade accord between the

U.K. and the EU that eliminates

import duties, Mr. Johnson’s

plan would mean goods cross-

ing the 310-mile border would

be subject to tariffs for the first

time in decades.

“It’s a backwards step,” said

Mr. Lecky, whose firm has

been making farm machinery

for around 150 years.

Mr. Johnson’s plan, submit-

ted to the EU on Wednesday,

represents the U.K.’s last, slim

hope of a smooth and orderly

withdrawal from the EU by

Oct. 31. The EU has given it a

tepid welcome, and officials

say it would need much more

work if it is to form the basis

for a rewritten exit treaty.

Parliament has legislated to

ask the EU to push back Brexit

to Jan. 31 if a new agreement

can’t be reached. In a state-

ment to a Scottish court dis-

closed Friday, Mr. Johnson’s

office said it would make such

a request no later than Oct. 19

if a deal wasn’t likely.

The plan offers a possible

fix for the thorniest part of

the Brexit puzzle—how to

manage the U.K.’s border with

Ireland once Britain is no lon-

ger an EU member state. Forty

years of common membership

eliminated the need for cus-

toms checks and regulatory in-

spections on goods.

Mr. Johnson’s desire to leave

the EU’s common regulatory

zone and customs territory im-

plies new frictions as such pro-

cedures are reimposed.

The previous proposal ne-

gotiated between former

Prime Minister Theresa May

and the EU, known as the Irish

backstop, foundered in Parlia-

ment. It called for the U.K. to

remain within the EU customs

union and for Northern Ire-

FROM PAGE ONE

land to follow many EU rules,

eliminating the need for cus-

toms checks or regulatory in-

spections.

Many Northern Irish busi-

nesses welcomed the backstop,

seeing it as a vehicle for pre-

serving trade with both the EU

and the U.K. But pro-Brexit

lawmakers and Northern Irish

legislators torpedoed it, saying

the backstop undermined Brit-

ish sovereignty and weakened

Northern Ireland’s status as an

integral part of the U.K.

Mr. Johnson’s counteroffer

seeks to overcome those polit-

ical objections—but in doing

so has sparked new worries in

Northern Ireland.

His plan calls for customs

checks, but in premises away

from the border, with mobile

customs officers policing for

smugglers.

Katie Daughen, head of

Brexit policy at the British

Irish Chamber of Commerce,

said the proposals represent a

welcome basis for renewed ne-

gotiation. But she added the

plan’s unusual separation of

customs procedures and prod-

uct regulation effectively cre-

ates two borders—one with

the U.K. and one with Ireland.

“A scenario where we would

see Northern Ireland businesses

having to deal with two borders

would be challenging, to say the

least,” she said.

Firms See a Burden in Irish Plan

Northern Irish

companies could face

more paperwork on

trading goods

Value of exports from

Northern Ireland, by

destination, 2017

Source: Northern Ireland Statistics and

Research Agency

Note:£1=$1.

£

billion

51510 20

RestofU.K.

Ireland

RestoftheEU

RestoftheWorld

Pope Francis, center, leads a meeting on ‘new paths for the church.’

GIUSEPPE LAMI/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

because of strike-related parts

shortages, fully cutting off

output of its most-profitable

vehicle line.

Workers get $250 a week in

financial assistance from the

union’s strike fund but that

figure is a fraction of their full

wage, which is anywhere from

$630 to $1,200 for a 40-hour

workweek.

Looming behind the strike

is GM’s long-range bet on

building more electric cars,

which require far fewer work-

ers and have more foreign-

sourced parts. For the UAW,

such plans are a threat to

wages and job security.

UAW and GM bargainers

had been making progress

heading into the weekend.

Terry Dittes, the UAW’s top

GM negotiator, sent a letter to

members on Friday saying the

union had found common

ground on health care and a

path to permanent employ-

ment for temporary workers.

Rank-and-file members

were buzzing Saturday night

that bargainers were hitting

the final stretch and the strike

might conclude soon. UAW

leaders were confident in an

offer presented to GM Satur-

day evening, believing a tenta-

tive agreement was in reach,

according to a person familiar

$

Weekly financial assistance to

workers from UAW strike fund

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