"We've just got to get behind the doors and get these things resolved, which I'm sure we can do," Wagoner told reporters on the sidelines of the Beijing Auto Show.
BEIJING (Reuters) - General Motors Corp <GM.N> Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said on Sunday he was confident the automaker could resolve outstanding contract issues with local bargaining units for the United Auto Workers union that have shut down a plant producing popular crossover vehicles.
"We've just got to get behind the doors and get these things resolved, which I'm sure we can do," Wagoner told reporters on the sidelines of the Beijing Auto Show.
Negotiators for the UAW and GM on Friday extended talks indefinitely beyond a strike deadline at a plant near Detroit that builds transmissions for the automaker's strong-selling cars and crossovers.
A strike at the plant would have been a second big blow to GM in as many days after workers at a GM assembly plant near Lansing, Michigan, walked out on Thursday.
!ADVERTISEMENT!That plant produces popular crossover vehicles -- middle-sized SUVs built on car platforms for easier handling and better gas mileage.
GM also said on Friday it had received a 5-day strike notice on Thursday from a UAW local at a plant in Fairfax, Kansas, which produces the Chevrolet Malibu, a strong-selling four-door sedan crucial to its product lineup.
GM already has at least partly idled about 30 plants due to a UAW strike at major supplier, American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc <AXL.N>.
That strike has mainly affected GM's production of large pickups and SUVs that have been selling slowly due to the weak U.S. economy and high fuel prices.
Wagoner said GM would detail its production loss because of the American Axle strike when it reports first quarter financial results later this week but he said that the impact had been muted by the slow sales of SUVs in the U.S. market.
"Negotiations are progressing," Wagoner said, adding that he could not speculate when an agreement might be reached.
Separately, Wagoner said he was hopeful that bankrupt auto parts supplier Delphi Corp could arrange a deal with new investors that would allow it to exit bankruptcy after investors led by Appaloosa Management backed out of a $2.55 billion equity deal earlier this month.
The loss of the Appaloosa funding sent Delphi back to the drawing board to hammer out an alternate arrangement that analysts have cautioned could force GM to offer Delphi more cash and delay its savings on parts purchases from the supplier it spun off in 1999.
Delphi had arranged $6.1 billion in exit financing with aid from GM earlier this month when Appaloosa terminated the separate but related equity portion of the deal.
"Now Delphi has to go back and restructure the financing," Wagoner said, adding "I don't think this is something we'll see resolved imminently."
But Wagoner also said the work on Delphi's restructuring since it entered bankruptcy in 2005 provided "a good base" for a revised exit financing plan. "I hope it doesn't take an extended period of time," he said. "The fact that they were able to arrange the debt side of the financing would suggest that the restructuring can be done."
(Reporting by Kevin Krolicki; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
