The UAW announced on Sunday that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will be the lead target in Big Three auto talks.
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Contracts for all three of the Detroit automakers, including Ford Motor Co and General Motors Co expire late Monday night.
GM has 51,000 hourly workers who are looking for a new four-year contract. FCA confirmed its selection but said it would have no further comment. Fiat Chrysler _ the smallest of the three companies _ now becomes the focus of bargaining and could be hit with a strike if negotiations stall. After a decade of no raises for some workers and lower wages and benefits for others, the union has said it’s payback time for helping the automakers survive.
The last UAW strike of the Detroit 3 occurred in 2007.
Many union workers want to scrap a two-tier wage system that came about seven-years ago and was designed to help companies cut costs when they were losing billions of dollars.
Mr. Williams, however, has said he views a strike as a last resort and a failure on both the union and companies’ part. It also wants to close the wage gap for entry-level workers, who make about half the $29 hourly wage of veteran employees. Union leadership has signaled the next deal shouldn’t be one for givebacks amid a booming US auto-sales landscape on track to be the best since 2001 that is bolstering finances at GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler.
As for the automakers, they want to reduce the rise in health care costs, and flexibility to shift workers among various jobs.
All three companies also want to stick with profit-sharing instead of increasing hourly labor costs.
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For decades, the UAW has selected one company with which to negotiate.
