DETROIT (AP) -- American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. has turned over confidential financial information to the United Auto Workers union in a bid to speed negotiations aimed at ending a five-week strike over wages and benefits.
The auto supplier said Tuesday it turned over the information last week after the Detroit company and the UAW signed a confidentiality agreement. The UAW said American Axle provided additional information to bargainers on Tuesday.
''We are in the process of reviewing the information provided by the company, to determine if it is fully responsive to our requests,'' UAW Vice President James Settles Jr. said in a statement.
Settles said the UAW requested detailed financial information from American Axle and offered to sign a confidentiality agreement on Dec. 7, but the company didn't respond. Settles said the company's failure to provide the financial information was one of the reasons the union went on strike Feb. 26.
Settles said the information is needed to evaluate proposals that will affect pensions, health care, profit-sharing and other issues.
''Failure to provide such information is a violation of federal law,'' he said. The union has filed a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board, which is investigating.
The UAW also said Tuesday that the strike has been prolonged because American Axle illegally terminated disability payments and health care for injured workers as well as health care for laid-off workers. American Axle spokeswoman Renee Rogers said the company is evaluating that charge, but she had no further comment.
Both sides expressed the hope that the strike will end soon. American Axle spokeswoman Renee Rogers said bargainers were meeting Tuesday.
''It is my sincere hope that AAM and the UAW will be able to jointly develop an agreement that will allow AAM to compete on a level playing field in the United States automotive supply industry,'' American Axle Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Dauch said in a statement.
Around 3,600 UAW workers at five American Axle plants in Michigan and New York are on strike. Thirty General Motors Corp. factories have been fully or partially shut down, affecting more than 39,000 hourly workers, because of parts shortages due to the strike, including 29 GM-owned facilities and an AM General LLC that makes Hummers.
American Axle shares fell 13 cents to close Tuesday at $20.37.
