GM Workers Strike, but Talks Resume


LITTLE progress was reported during weekend talks between autoworkers and General Motors Corp., and hopes for a quick end to a four-day-old strike began to fade.

Negotiations resumed yesterday between the No. 1 automaker and the United Auto Workers union even as workers walked picket lines in front of the Pontiac East truck plant.

Production of the hot-selling pickups was halted when about 5,500 plant workers walked out Friday morning in a dispute over claims of labor shortages and a lack of job security.

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The union 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.

Negotiators were at the table for about seven hours on Saturday and five hours on Sunday.

Union officials said ''they didn't accomplish much,'' but a GM spokeswoman said that the fact that both sides were talking at all was a positive sign.

Though the Pontiac strike threatens GM's capacity for building popular full-size pickup trucks, it will not immediately force other plants to close.

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