Foundering auto-parts supplier Delphi submitted a proposal to the UAW with cuts even stiffer than previously imagined:

According to the proposal, Delphi wants new hires to accept wages as low as $9 an hour, compared with $14 an hour today. The company wants hourly workers making $25 to $27 an hour to accept wages between $9.50 and $10.50 an hour. Delphi also wants overtime to be accrued after working a full week, as opposed to a full day.

Moreover, Delphi wants to freeze its pension plan and said it does not want to accept new pension plan participants after Jan. 1.

Out-of-pocket costs for health care would increase to a maximum $5,000 a year for a family or $2,500 annually for an individual. That would compare to the $500 per family and $250 per person workers currently contribute to the company's traditional health care plan.

Additionally, vision and dental benefits would be eliminated. The company said it also would discontinue "current health care options" but may offer other affordable plans in the future.

The proposal to the UAW concludes, "Delphi recognizes the hardship that this proposal imposes on your members. There is no alternative."

Delphi is the fourth largest publicly traded company in Michigan, where 14,700 of their 185,000 employees live and work.  The company filed for bankruptcy on October 8 after losing $4.8 billion last year. Needless to say, Delphi's predicament is dire and failure to come to terms with the unions may set off a strike that could mortally wound a U.S. auto industry already hemorrhaging cash and groaning under the weight of ballooning health care costs and expensive pension plans.

We've run some great commentary on the Delphi case recently, so if you're interested and you missed it the first time around, here are a few pieces worth reading:

Public Sector Unions Still Living In A Dream World - Thomas Bray, Detroit News (10/23)
GM Rolling Out of Its Welfare State - George Will, Washington Post (10/20)
GM's Suicide Pact With The UAW - Daniel Gross, Slate (10/19)
The Fate of 'Made in the USA' - Robert Samuelson, Washington Post (10/19)
Bailout For Auto Industry Not Likely This Time - Thomas Bray, Detroit News (10/16)
The Delphi News - Michael Barone, Baroneblog (10/14)
The Vanishing Middle - Harold Meyerson, Washington Post (10/12)