UAW and Detroit's Big Three Begin Contract Negotiations This Week

06/11/96

When contract negotiations between the United Auto Workers and the Big Three U.S. Carmakers start this week, the car companies will be pushing to double the term of the contract they negotiate from three to six years. Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors prefer a longer contract term because it would afford them a certain amount of stability and cost predictability. The UAW may use the length of contract issue as a fulcrum to get what workers want out of the car companies: job security.

Outsourcing, the industry practice of farming work out to non-union and often overseas workers, is the biggest threat to job security that workers face. It has recently become an issue of national importance, as evidenced by the UAW strike that crippled GM's production across North America earlier this spring and strikes about the same issue in other industries (e.g., the recent International Associations of Machinists strike against McDonnel Douglas).

The UAW is expected to try and regulate outsourcing contractually and whatever decision the union and carmakers reach concerning the issue is expected to have far reaching impact on other industries around the country. Another big issue for the UAW will be the huge overtime burden that carmakers put on their employees. UAW president Steven Yokich said that the union will press for more jobs to help relieve the overtime burden that denies workers the vacation periods and days off that they earn.

Bargaining is expected to follow the same pattern as it has in the past, with talks continuing through the summer and the UAW concentrating their efforts on getting one company to sign off on substantive issues before taking the issues to the other companies. Most analysts expect union efforts to concentrate on Chrysler, as it is in the best financial shape of all three automakers and thus in a position to give more where concessions are required.

Negotiations should move into high gear sometime after labor day.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel