DETROIT (AP) -- American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. Chairman and CEO Richard Dauch has been awarded an $8.5 million bonus in part for leading the auto parts supplier through a bitter strike.
The bonus revealed Friday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is in addition to his earlier reported 2007 compensation valued at $5.55 million.
About 3,650 United Auto Workers union members at American Axle's five original facilities in New York and Michigan went on strike Feb. 26 for nearly three months, but later ratified a contract with deep concessions.
The committee that decided to award the bonus took into account the company's "strong financial performance in 2007, the structural transformation achieved under our new labor agreements with the UAW and ... Dauch's leadership role in these negotiations," the company reported in the filing.
A message seeking comment was left Saturday with a UAW spokesman.
American Axle made a $37 million full-year profit in 2007. American Axle said in May it will cut more than half of its U.S. hourly work force, or 2,000 jobs, through early retirement and buyout offers, plant closures and layoffs. The moves were made possible by the new contract with the UAW.
The auto parts maker has said its total hourly labor costs would drop from $73.48 before the new contract to between $30 and $45. The cost will vary by factory because they have different wage and benefit costs.
The strike crippled General Motors Corp.'s production of pickup trucks and big sport utility vehicles, and it took a contribution of $215 million from the automaker to end a stalemate between the union and American Axle.
Most of Dauch's previously reported pay was stock and options worth roughly $3.99 million on the day they were granted. He also earned $1.47 million in salary and $94,684 in other compensation, a category that includes perks such as life insurance, use of company vehicles and meals during business hours.
Dauch's bonus in 2006 was $3.9 million, and his total compensation that year was valued at roughly $7.5 million.
The Associated Press' calculations of total compensation include salary, bonus, perks, and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year.
The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits and sometimes differ from the totals that companies report in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the SEC.