{"id":42204,"date":"2011-09-07T09:39:08","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T13:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=42204"},"modified":"2011-09-07T08:29:27","modified_gmt":"2011-09-07T12:29:27","slug":"contract-talks-drag-as-deadline-approaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2011\/09\/contract-talks-drag-as-deadline-approaches\/","title":{"rendered":"Contract Talks Drag as Deadline Approaches"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Workers on a GM assembly plant in Flint. The domestic giant could be targeted first as contract talks come down to the wire - but a strike is barred by law.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Talks between the United Auto Workers Union and Detroit’s three automakers have slowed in recent days even as workers at Ford voted in favor of a strike and UAW officials brushed aside reports it has elected to focus on General Motors as its target as its contracts expire Sept. 14.<\/p>\n

Michele Martin, UAW spokeswoman, said in an e-mail the union had not picked a target to focus on yet after several reports surfaced indicating the union had decided to concentrate on GM in a bid to win a contract that could then be used as a pattern for a settlement with Ford and Chrysler.<\/p>\n

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News Now! Stay in the Know!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, negotiations with all three automakers are moving slowly, according to those familiar with the talks. Sources at the three automakers indicated the negotiations are bogging down and in places have not gotten much beyond the subcommittee level.<\/p>\n

UAW President Bob King, however, said in a television interview over the weekend he thought the talks were going well. The negotiations involve new contracts covering more than 112,000 workers at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.<\/p>\n

All three companies have stuck to their basic bargaining position that competitive pressure from Asian carmakers means they cannot afford to increase their labor rates in the next contract. \u201cThe old model was broken. We can\u2019t go back,\u201d one company official familiar with the talks said recently.<\/p>\n

UAW President Bob King said he wants improvements in the new contract to the entry level wage of $14.50 per hour, which leaves new autoworkers making half the $29 per hour, on average, paid to senior workers at all three companies.<\/p>\n

GM, the largest of the automakers, apparently has offered to bring more work into its U.S. plants, provided the starting wage remains basically intact.<\/p>\n

The UAW board also would like to avoid stumbling into a confrontation at Ford, which could be costly for both sides and damage the union\u2019s efforts to re-tool it image away from its militant past.\u00a0 That\u2019s particularly important for the UAW to meet its long-term goal of organizing the foreign-owned transplants, such as the Honda plant in East Liberty, Ohio and the new Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee.<\/p>\n

But workers appear to be pressing their union leaders to take a more militant approach.<\/p>\n

Ford workers defiantly rejected a call for more concessions in 2009 and the automaker is not covered by the no-strike clause to which the UAW agreed in exchange for federal assistance for GM and Chrysler. Targeting a company covered by the no-strike rules should make it easier to wrap up the contract with Ford since King and other top union leaders can insist under the union\u2019s long-time strategy of pattern bargaining workers have to accept the settlement reached at GM. But any deal struck at Ford first could be rejected by GM and Chrysler if they think it\u2019s too rich, leaving the final contract terms at both companies to be decided by an arbitrator.<\/p>\n

Union negotiators also have some room to sweeten a final settlement at Ford, which rejected federal aid and has made more than $6 billion in profits in the past two years, with a larger \u201csigning bonus,\u201d which is acceptable under the pattern bargaining formula because it doesn\u2019t change the basic wage structure.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s just a week left to hammer out new contracts with Detroit’s three automakers, yet negotiations are dragging, TheDetroitBureau.com reports as it looks at what the UAW’s strategy may be to reach a satisfactory settlement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20009,"featured_media":35601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42204"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42204"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=42204"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=42204"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=42204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}