|
 UAW President Dennis Williams and its vice president for Fiat
Chrysler, Norwood Jewell, told local union leaders during a meeting
in Detroit Thursday evening that negotiators would convene Friday
and approach the automaker, people familiar with the discussions
said. Williams and other top union leaders didn't discuss a strike
at Fiat Chrysler in the near term, they said.
Meanwhile, workers at a Ford Motor Co pickup truck and commercial
van factory near Kansas City, Mo. have threatened a walkout over
local contract disputes for Sunday at noon local time.
Williams and the UAW made no public statement Friday about their
next moves at Fiat Chrysler after 65 percent of UAW members rejected
the proposed four-year deal. The union did not immediately return a
phone call seeking comment on whether negotiators had convened or
approached the company on Friday.
The failure of the Fiat Chrysler contract highlights the tightrope
that Williams and the UAW are walking. A strong recovery at the
once-ailing Detroit automakers has failed to vanquish threats to
union jobs from lower-wage workers in Mexico and non-union factories
in the Southern United States.
The contract agreed with Fiat Chrysler tempered wage demands in
return for promises of $5.3 billion in investment in U.S. factories.
But the effort to trade off short term gains for long term security
backfired.
Fiat Chrysler is expected to resist boosting U.S. labor costs beyond
the levels originally agreed, people familiar with the situation
said. The company said on Thursday that its decisions would be based
on its "industrial objectives."
The tentative contract provided for raises for both veteran workers
currently earning $28 an hour, and recently hired, second-tier UAW
members who earn about $19 an hour.
But it did not close the pay gap between the two groups, as many
lower-paid workers had hoped, UAW members said. It also provided
relatively modest raises for higher-paid veterans who made
concessions on wages and benefits during three prior rounds of
bargaining as the Detroit automakers scrambled to survive.
HIGH EXPECTATIONS
UAW officials and rank and file members told Reuters the contract
lost support among Fiat Chrysler's 40,000 UAW workers because it
failed to lift lower-paid workers into the top tier within the
four-year span of the contract. Confusion over proposed changes to
the union healthcare plans also undercut support, local leaders and
union members said.
“The FCA contract did not resolve the two-tiered wage system, it
only made it worse," said Scott Houldieson, a local UAW official at
Ford's Chicago assembly plant. "The pay increases included in the
contract are only those that we agreed to give up in 2009.”
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UAW workers and officials at General Motors Co and Ford plants in
the U.S. said a contract patterned on the rejected Fiat Chrysler
deal could face opposition if taken to a vote at those companies.
“Our members see this as our time to get back some of the things
that they have given up. The expectations of members were very high
going into this,” said Brian Hartman, president of the UAW local
that represents workers at GM's Fort Wayne, Indiana pickup truck
factory.
“As it’s written, there’s not a chance" of a similar contract
winning approval at GM, he said.
Nuts-and-bolts issues such as attendance policies, which it
tightened, also soured workers on the deal, union members said.
“The new attendance policy is even more strict than the one that
most people think is too harsh already,” said Brett Ward, a worker
at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant near Detroit where the
Chrysler 200 is made. “The steps toward discipline are fewer and
it’s easy for people to get into trouble, and could lead to firing.”
Another unresolved area of tension is the ongoing desire of the
Detroit Three to shift more production south of the border.
UAW leaders have said Ford plans to move production of the Focus
compact car from a factory in Wayne, Michigan to Mexico. The company
has confirmed only that the Focus will move out of the Wayne plant.
Fiat Chrysler has separately indicated it will move production of
certain cars to Mexico.
"We’ve made concessions, we’ve done what was necessary to keep the
company profitable and ... they turn around and say, ‘Thanks sucker,
we’re going overseas,' said Mary Springowski, 49, who's worked 25
years at Ford's engine plant in Cleveland.
(Additional reporting by Meredith Davis. Editing by Joseph White and
Christian Plumb)
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