How the new labor rate will affect FCA’s total labor costs wasn’t immediately clear, since the contract may contain other provisions that save the automaker money, such as expanded flexibility to employ contract labor, which FCA has been seeking. At numerous carmakers plants seventy percent or more of the ballots were cast supporting the pact. Only at Belvidere, 83% of the production workers voted in favor of the agenda.
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The revised FCA contract earned strong support, with 77 percent of production workers and 72 percent of skilled trade workers voting in favor.
“The UAW announced today that it will pursue a contract for UAW-GM members in the next round of Big Three bargaining as negotiations continue at Ford”, commented the UAW hours after announcing the positive result of the ratification process for FCA voters. Fiat and Chrysler merged in 2014.
The company said the new contract “represents an investment in our US workforce and recognizes its contributions to the company’s growth over the past six years”. The UAW will need to make them happy to get any deal ratified.
GM said in a statement that it would bargain “in good faith to obtain an agreement that meets the needs of GM employees and the business”. UAW members rejected a different deal with the automaker last month. But this is the basis.
Sources revealed that workers at Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana stated that the new contract, which was proposed earlier this year, met their expectations and was better than previous pact that were offered by the carmaker. In fact, low-pay and precarious part-time and temporary employment have become the “new normal” not just for autoworkers, but for workers throughout the USA economy.
The new deal takes the tier two workers up to $28 an hour after seven years with the company, putting them on a more even footing with veterans.
Williams also has said he expects to extract more generous agreements from both of those automakers because they are financially healthier than Fiat Chrysler.
One potential sticking point is a new profit-sharing formula secured by Fiat Chrysler that ties bonus checks to company profit margins in North America.
Finalization of this labor deal is a great relief for Fiat.
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Earlier this year, GM agreed to buy back $5 billion of its shares in response to a group of large investors who urged it to buy back $8 billion.
