The extension signals the two sides are still working to hammer out details on wages, benefits and other economic issues crucial to winning rank-and-file support.
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The Italian-American company and union announced the accord covering about 40,000 workers nationwide after a furious and nearly continuous 48 hours of bargaining. Fiat Chrysler has about 36,000 USA hourly workers represented by the UAW. The union narrowly lost an organizing vote at the VW plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, last year.
“By having Fiat go first and dictating terms they can live with, I think they’ll be able to improve the terms for a more profitable Ford and GM and maintain the pattern”, Wheaton said.
“We believe that we have met those goals, but ultimately our membership will make the final decision”, Williams said. After years 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.
But, FCA US CEO Sergio Marchionne has distinguished himself from his Ford and GM counterparts, in part, by consistently denouncing two-tier wages.
“Taking a richer agreement negotiated elsewhere and trying to cram it into a box that FCA could swallow, there might be some challenges there”, she said.
GM hasn’t faced a strike for many years. On Monday, General Motors Co. said that it signed an agreement with the UAW to extend the national contract indefinitely giving a push to the labor talks for a new four-year deal after the expiration of the earlier deal.
If the talks hit an impasse, the UAW could call a companywide strike or stage limited walkouts that could cripple FCA’s operations without forcing hefty payments to workers from union strike funds.
Marchionne was set to attend the launch of a new Alfa Romero in Frankfurt on Tuesday morning but cancelled those plans “due to other commitments in the United States” FCA said in a statement. The current contracts expire Monday, but will likely be extended. About 42 percent of its employees are paid at a lower wage tier, compared with 28 percent at Ford and 20 percent at GM.
UAW leaders have rallied members by saying “this is our time” to reap rewards for workers three rounds of concessionary contracts since 2007.
Marchionne has been outspoken about wanting to eliminate the wage gap.
In any case, Marchionne wants wages tied to productivity and profits, “so workers could share with the downside as well as the upside” of the corporations.
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UAW spokesman Brian Rothenberg said at 6 am ET that most of the negotiators were still working.
