The United Auto Workers (UAW) extended its contracts with General Motors Co. (GM) and Chrysler Group LLC, controlled by Italy’s Fiat SpA (FIATY) as it failed to meet the deadline to reach a new agreement with the automakers.
UAW would resume talks with GM today, while it is unclear when it would do the same with Chrysler. Chrysler is disappointed with UAW as its president, Bob King, didn’t turn up yesterday.
Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne stated that failure to meet the deadline would hurt its workers. He asked UAW for a weeklong extension of the existing contract.
The new agreement will determine wages and benefits for 111,000 unionized autoworkers, and set the wage standard at auto parts makers’ plants, plants run by foreign automakers in the U.S. and other manufacturers’ plants.
As many as 71,000 blue-collar workers are covered by the UAW contracts with GM and Chrysler. The UAW has already extended its contract with Ford Motor Co. (F) last week, which covers about 40,000 workers.
Earlier, workers were allowed to strike over wages if the UAW hadn't extended their contracts. However, due to the government bailouts in 2009, both GM and Chrysler’s autoworkers are barred from striking work over wages.
Under the new agreement, the union is eager to participate in profit-sharing programs by the company, allowing higher pay for entry-level workers who earn $14 to $16 per hour and signing bonuses and guarantees of new jobs with the recovery of auto sales.
On the other hand, Ford and GM intends to reduce their labor costs, which would be competitive with Asian automakers such as Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) and Honda Motor Co. (HMC) at the same time, while Chrysler aims to keep its labor costs steady.
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