UAW and Ford Keep Talking - UAW and GM Keep Talking - UAW and DaimlerChrysler Talked Enough to Agree

DETROIT September 15, 2003; John Porretto writing for the AP reported that United Auto Workers representatives told their members they were close to new labor agreements with General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. but that difficult issues remained as negotiations stretched on Monday.

The union announced early Monday that it had reached a tentative, four-year contract deal with DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group.

The Big Three and UAW began talks on new labor pacts in mid-July, but GM and Ford were unable to reach resolutions before the current contracts expired as Sunday's midnight deadline passed.

The union said workers for both companies will report to work as usual while negotiations continue. The UAW had hoped to reach simultaneous pacts with the Big Three as well as auto suppliers Visteon Corp. and Delphi Corp.

"We're very close to completing our work, but we're not done yet," Brock Roy, a member of the UAW's national negotiating committee meeting with Ford and Visteon, said in a telephone message recorded Monday for workers. "The UAW, Ford and Visteon have agreed to a three-day extension so we continue negotiating on a couple of very difficult issues."

Roy did not specify the issues, and representatives of the automakers and UAW have declined to discuss the talks substantively.

In a similar message posted Sunday night for GM workers, UAW negotiator Clyde Sims also said the two sides were nearing a resolution but declined to specify matters still on the table.

At a time when the U.S. market share for GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler is at an all-time low, analysts and labor experts have said the probability of a strike is low.

Details of the tentative agreement with Chrysler weren't released, but UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the deal contains what the union hopes to see in the other contracts. The pact covers wages and benefits for 63,000 active workers and 66,000 retirees and surviving spouses.

UAW Vice President Nate Gooden said in a recorded message Monday that the deal accomplishes the union's collective bargaining goals and protects retirement pensions, wages and health care while improving health and safety. The contract must be ratified by Chrysler workers.

"The national bargaining committee fully supports the language of the proposed new agreement," Gooden said.

The union and the companies have been negotiating on issues such as wages, jobs, health care and pensions that affect 300,000 workers and nearly a half-million retirees and their spouses.

Some analysts and labor experts have said the new pacts likely will reflect the difficult predicaments of the automakers and that compromise in areas such as wage and pension increases was likely.

Gettelfinger has insisted the union would not retreat on health care benefits, so some analysts said negotiators were likely to reach agreements that would give automakers more flexibility in plant closings in exchange for continued low-cost medical coverage.

Goldman Sachs analyst Gary Lapidus said Monday he predicts the Chrysler pact -- which the union will use as a model for the others -- is largely "status quo."

"Labor likely gives up job protection for the union, but in return maintains gold-plated benefits and job security for the existing actives and retirees," Lapidus said in a research report.

"In return, the automakers can increase productivity by 'riding the labor attrition curve' and can close selected plants as able through regular and approved early retirement programs," Lapidus said.

Another Wall Street analyst, Morgan Stanley's Stephen J. Girsky, has said the Big Three likely need to close between seven and 10 plants in North America to move supply and demand into better balance.

The current contracts were negotiated in 1999 during the term of Gettelfinger's predecessor, Stephen Yokich, who died last year shortly after his retirement. Those pacts included 3 percent annual pay hikes, a ban on plant closings and nearly cost-free health care.