DETROIT -- General Motors Co. has taken the lead in contract talks with the UAW as it has started discussing flexible compensation with the union, The Detroit News reported, citing multiple sources familiar with the negotiations.
According to the News, GM hopes to negotiate on its own terms, without acknowledging Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group, which are trying to deal with lesser problems before discussing more critical issues such as profit sharing and the two-tiered wage system.
A GM spokeswoman declined to comment, but GM North America President Mark Reuss said this month at the Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, Mich., that hourly compensation should be based on product quality and performance.
"We want to be competitive on the wages. We want to pay for performance, that's what we want in this culture," Reuss said.
Speaking Tuesday in Chicago at a closed-door meeting with union leaders, UAW President Bob King said he expects negotiations with the automakers to be completed by mid-September, Reuters reported.
King's remarks provide indications that the union is on pace to complete a deal with each Detroit 3 automaker by Sept. 14, when the current collective bargaining agreements expire.
At the meeting at which King spoke, union leaders representing Ford authorized a strike vote by Sept. 2, according to Reuters.
Such a move is considered standard procedure when unions prepare for final contract talks with an employer. The union's top Ford negotiator, Jimmy Settles, told the Detroit Free Press that the strike vote was "nothing unusual" and that the talks are on schedule.
Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans declined to comment on the negotiations, but said Ford was "confident we'll continue to have constructive dialogue with the UAW" in order to reach an agreement that's "beneficial to both parties."
Ford is the only automaker that the UAW could strike in this round of contract talks because the union agreed not to strike against Chrysler or GM as part of the companies' 2009 government bailouts.
"This is something we do every four years," Settles told the Free Press. "We do this because we have the right to strike. We always do this before the expiration of the agreement."
