DETROIT -- The UAW is turning its attention to Ford Motor Co. in the next round of negotiations over new wage and benefit contracts with Detroit automakers.
The UAW and Chrysler Group LLC earlier Wednesday agreed to extend their existing contract for four more weeks and continue negotiations on a new wage and benefit pact covering about 23,000 workers.
After reaching an agreement with General Motors on Friday, the union was widely expected to focus next on Chrysler, and finish at Ford.
A one-week extension of Chrysler's contract was set to expire at 11:59 p.m. ET Wednesday.
Chrysler said its current contract would now run through through Oct. 19. The union, in a statement, declined to comment further on the negotiations at Chrysler or Ford.
Talks between Chrysler and the UAW broke off after 6:30 p.m. ET Wednesday and resume Thursday. Bargaining at Ford resumed this week after a weekend hiatus in anticipation of the GM deal.
The UAW's labor agreements cover 113,000 workers at GM, Ford and Chrysler and expired on Sept. 14.
Big issues at Ford
Because the Ford negotiations posed more complications, the union was expected to turn its attention to Detroit's No. 2 automaker last.
Ford's UAW membership has dropped from 54,000 in 2007 to around 41,000 today. Its hourly labor costs are also higher than those of GM and Chrysler.
The UAW traditionally selects a lead Detroit automaker to seal the best deal, then pressing the remaining two companies to match the pattern. It's unclear how much the union will try to persuade Ford and Chrysler to accept the GM pact.
“It certainly has the potential for conflict,” said Robert W. Clark, a former Ford labor negotiator and president of RWC Consulting LLC. “There’s nothing in it for Ford to get their costs pushed further out of line with competitors, and nothing in it for the UAW to take them to brink. The old notion of brinksmanship doesn’t seem to make much sense in this case.”
The UAW has the ability to strike Ford -- a bargaining right the union was forced to give up at Chrysler and GM through 2015 as part of their government bailouts.
"We look forward to working with the UAW on a new tentative agreement that is fair to our employees and allows Ford to become more competitive," Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans said in an e-mailed statement.
In 2009, UAW workers at Ford rejected a package of concessions sought by management and endorsed by the union's leadership.
Ford was seeking similar concessions that GM and Chrysler were able to secure from the union as part of their bankruptcy restructurings.
Recovering concessions
Gary Walkowicz, an auto worker at Ford's Dearborn Truck assembly plant in suburban Detroit, said employees are expecting Ford to return "a substantial part of the concessions" workers made in 2007 and 2009.
He said he will vote no on any tentative agreement that does not include a wage increase and a cost-of-living allowance that the workers gave up.
"We feel we need guaranteed money," said Walkowicz, a UAW committee man who is critical of the tentative GM contract revealed Tuesday. Dearborn Truck, located just a few miles from Ford's world headquarters, makes Ford F-150 pickups.
Like GM and Chrysler, Ford is balking at raising fixed labor costs. Instead, the company wants to keep increases relegated to signing bonuses and enhanced profit-sharing.
The UAW has a grievance against Ford pending in arbitration that claims the company broke an agreement calling for equal treatment of unionized workers and salaried employees by giving white-collar workers raises and reinstated tuition assistance and 401(k) matches. Ford has not reinstated similar benefits for UAW members, the union claims.
Walkowicz said workers need to be wary of job promises because of fine print that says they will materialize only "if market conditions permit."
"Look at the promises made in 2007 and 2009," he said. "They were inflated."
Ford has also provided rich compensation packages to senior executives in the last year that have drawn criticism from top UAW leaders.
GM pact
Under its agreement, GM agreed to add or retain 6,400 jobs, enhance profit-sharing, reopen an assembly plant and boost starting wages for new workers to $15.78, from $14, and to a maximum of about $19.28, up from about $16, in the previous contract.
While GM workers will not receive a wage increase, eligible employees will collect a $5,000 signing bonus upon ratification of the deal, and $1,000 "inflation protection" payments in the final three years of the contract.
Local leaders from the UAW unanimously supported the deal at a meeting in Detroit on Tuesday, sending the proposed contract to GM workers for a ratification vote the union expects to be completed by the end of next week.
Chrysler officials have indicated in recent days the GM deal is too expensive for Detroit's smallest automaker, though they support many of the economic provisions that tie more compensation to profits and lump sum payments.
The talks at Chrysler pose a delicate balancing act because the UAW holds a 41 percent stake in the automaker through an independent health care trust for retired auto workers.
The negotiations produced some rare public tension last week when UAW President Bob King skipped a meeting with Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, who was expecting to sign a new accord before the Sept. 14 deadline.
In a two-page letter to King afterward, Marchionne said he felt slighted and that both he and King had let workers down for failing to deliver a new pact on schedule. The UAW has declined comment on the letter.
Marchionne met King on Wednesday before the talks were extended again, two people familiar with the negotiations said.
Chrysler is insisting on a contract that won't increase its overall labor costs and rates – already the lowest among Detroit's 3 automakers – and place it at a competitive disadvantage with rivals.
The average U.S. hourly labor cost -- wages and benefits – is $49 at Chrysler, compared to $58 at Ford and $56 at GM, according to The Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.
At Toyota's U.S. plants, the hourly compensation averages $55 and at Hyundai it is $44, CAR says.
