United Auto Workers

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland executives, as part of a reorganization of the state's largest health insurer, have set up a kind of employee musical chairs -- asking groups of workers to reapply for their jobs while reducing the number of jobs available.The company also put into effect yesterday sweeping new employee regulations that many workers say reduce their benefits and freedoms.Although as recently as Friday, the company had insisted it was not laying off workers, Sharon Vecchioni, vice president for human resources at Blue Cross, said late yesterday that some employees have lost their jobs as the company reduces duplication and consolidates various units.

lTCMartin expects no lull at plantWhile its contract with Local 738 of the United Auto Workers expired at midnight last night, Martin Marietta Corp. said yesterday that it expected no interruption in production at its Middle River complex today. The union has advised its 400 members to report to work at their normal times.On Sunday, union members voted by a 10-to-1 margin to reject a proposed contract from the company that would have halted cost-of-living wage increases, cut the number of holidays and eliminated the jobs of cafeteria workers and janitors.

For the second time in little more than a year, production workers at Martin Marietta Corp.'s Middle River complex are being asked to accept wage and benefit concessions the company says are needed to safeguard jobs.The concessions are included in what was described as the "last and final" contract offer from Martin Marietta. The contract would cover union workers at its plants in Maryland, Denver and Orlando, Fla.Kenneth Miles, bargaining chairman for Local 738 of the United Auto Workers, which represents about 400 hourly workers at the Baltimore County complex, said yesterday that the union will recommend that its members reject the company's proposal, setting the stage for a possible strike.

Slogan-shirts fit union to a 'T,' NLRB saysCan you wear at work a T-shirt that makes fun of your boss? Yes, in some cases, the National Labor Relations Board staff says.The NLRB staff has upheld union complaints that Caterpillar Inc. improperly disciplined workers at its headquarters and at a York, Pa., factory, after the workers wore T-shirts that read "Permanently Replace Fites."Donald V. Fites, Caterpillar's chairman, sparked the employees' ire when he broke a United Auto Workers strike a year ago by hiring permanent replacement workers.

WILMINGTON, Del. -- In an ornate ballroom in the posh Hotel duPont, Caterpillar Inc. Chairman Donald V. Fites said yesterday that his company had gotten calls from 47,000 people interested in filling the 12,600 jobs being struck by the United Auto Workers. Outside the hotel, about 100 striking and laid-off workers carried signs demanding: "Permanently replace Fites."What is likely to be one of the most important labor battles of the coming decade moved from Caterpillar headquarters in Peoria, Ill., to this normally quiet bastion of American capitalism yesterday as Caterpillar held its annual shareholders meeting.

The 3,700 workers at the General Motors Corp. minivan assembly plant in East Baltimore are not expected to feel the brunt of the company's massive cost-cutting restructuring plan that will be announced next week."

General Motors Corp. is set to boost the output Monday of the popular minivans built at its Broening Highway plant from 42 units an hour to 48 to meet consumer demand, the company disclosed yesterday.Similar production-line adjustments earlier this year resulted in a bitter, four-week strike by 3,200 production workers that halted production at the Southeast Baltimore plant and resulted in the layoffs of hundreds of other workers at a half dozen area companies that supply the sprawling GM complex.

Congress is scheduled to vote this week on legislation that state labor experts say could change the balance between unions and management.But union leaders and business representatives disagree on the way the legislation could tilt the scales.The bill, which would make it illegal for employers to permanently replace striking workers, has the support of all but three members of Maryland's congressional delegation. The three lawmakers say they have yet to decide how they will vote.The bill is scheduled to come before the House of Representatives Wednesday.

The strike by 3,200 autoworkers against General Motors Corp.'s Southeast Baltimore minivan assembly plant enters its 17th day this morning with a slight hint that a settlement may not be far down the road.Following yesterday's negotiating session, Rodney A. Trump, president of Local 239 of the United Auto Workers, said there was some indication that movement will occur on both sides when talks resume at 9:30 this morning.Mr. Trump declined to elaborate. He also cautioned against striking workers becoming overly optimistic for fear that they might be disappointed.

It's not a very hospitable place, that 5100 block of Holabird Avenue.There's a lot of asphalt and concrete, and the sidewalk temperature was pushing 125 degrees at noon yesterday.A chain-link fence topped by three strands of barbed wire stretches the entire block. On one side is the sprawling, but idle, General Motors Corp. minivan assembly plant. On the other, about 35 placard-carrying auto workers who were expressing their displeasure over the way the plant is being operated.The striking members of the United Auto Workers were beginning the third week of a walkout over what they charge are unsafe working conditions.