The United Auto Workers union has ratcheted up talks with Chrysler LLC and plans to work through the weekend to negotiate a new four-year contract agreement, a person briefed on the talks said Friday.
The person, who requested anonymity because the talks are private, said Ford Motor Co. has been told by the UAW that talks with Chrysler have intensified. General Motors Corp. already has reached a tentative agreement with the UAW that GM workers are now voting on.
UAW spokesman Roger Kerson said he had no comment on the talks with Chrysler. Chrysler spokeswoman Michele Tinson and Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans also said they had no comment.
The UAW's contracts with Chrysler, Ford and GM were originally set to expire Sept. 14. The UAW selected GM as the lead company and strike target in the negotiations and reached a tentative agreement Sept. 26 after a two-day strike. The agreement won't go into effect until it's ratified by GM workers, a process expected to end Wednesday. Chrysler and Ford have been extending their contracts indefinitely.
The UAW typically reaches an agreement with one automaker and then tries to get the others to match the terms. But it's unclear if the UAW will be able to convince Chrysler and Ford to match GM's agreement.
The UAW represents about 49,000 hourly workers at Chrysler, making it the smallest of the domestic automakers. The company also has around 78,000 retirees and surviving spouses represented by the UAW.
Chrysler is something of a wild card in this year's negotiations because it recently became a private company. Daimler AG sold a majority share in Chrysler to the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP in August. As a private company, Chrysler no longer has shares and isn't required to file earnings reports.
At the start of the labor talks in July, Chrysler's then CEO Tom LaSorda said the negotiations were an opportunity for true change that would allow Chrysler to reduce costs and be more competitive. Chrysler pays its workers an average of $75.86 per hour in wages, pension and health care costs, the highest among the Detroit automakers.
“Negotiations are difficult. This one will be no exception. The challenges we are facing are clear,” LaSorda said. LaSorda is now a vice chairman after a management shuffle, but he is still overseeing Chrysler's labor talks.
Chrysler is seeking health care concessions that the UAW already granted to Ford and GM, for example. GM also made commitments to build products at 16 U.S. plants and the other two automakers might not want to make such promises.
A person briefed on the talks said Friday that Chrysler also may not agree to contribute as much as GM did to a trust for retiree health care. Under the tentative contract, GM would put as much as $30 billion of its $51 billion in unfunded retiree health care obligations into a UAW-managed trust known as a voluntary employees beneficiary association, or VEBA. Chrysler has $19 billion in unfunded retiree health costs, but wouldn't be required to contribute the entire amount.
