DETROIT — The United Automobile Workers agreed early on Thursday to extend contracts with General Motors and Chrysler after the parties were unable to reach new deals by the time the old pacts expired at midnight.þþThe extensions came shortly after the chief executive of Chrysler, Sergio Marchionne, sent a letter to the U.A.W.'s president, Bob King, late Wednesday lamenting that the talks had broken down because Mr. King did not show up at the bargaining table as expected.þþTalks continued past midnight at G.M. until that company and the U.A.W. agreed to extend their contract as well, a G.M. spokeswoman said. Negotiations with G.M. were scheduled to resume at 10 a.m. Thursday.þþMr. Marchionne sent the letter to Mr. King after the union leader spent the day huddled in contract talks with General Motors rather than Chrysler. A copy of the letter was obtained from sources close to the negotiations.þþ“I flew back from the Frankfurt Motor Show late last night to be here today to finalize our dialogue that has been started by our teams but that required your presence and mine to conclude,” Mr. Marchionne wrote. “You unfortunately could not be here, I am told, due to competing engagements.”þþMr. Marchionne went on to say that he and Mr. King “failed” employees by not concluding the months-long negotiations before the current contract expired.þþ“I am willing to extend the contract by an additional week to allow closure on all outstanding matters,” Mr. Marchionne wrote.þþWorkers for both companies had been anxiously awaiting word of a settlement, and even U.A.W. officials at several plants said they were being kept in the dark about the pace and nature of the discussions.þþ“We are confident that we can reach an agreement that will meet many of the goals we set at the beginning of negotiations,” Joe Ashton, a U.A.W. vice president in charge of negotiations with G.M., wrote in a message to workers that was posted online Wednesday.þþAny agreements must be approved by the U.A.W.’s local leaders and then ratified by the rank-and-file membership.þþLabor experts expect the companies to offer workers signing bonuses of at least $5,000 to improve the chances of ratification without permanently increasing labor costs.þþWorkers at all three companies received a $3,000 signing bonus in 2007. Their wages have not increased since 2003.þþTalks with the Ford Motor Company are not as far along as the negotiations with G.M. and Chrysler.þþOn Tuesday, Ford and the union agreed to extend their contract indefinitely, at least temporarily putting off the possibility that a strike could be called. The union can end the extension with three days’ notice, and it might do so when a deal is close to pressure the company to settle.þþTalks with all three companies lacked much of the acrimony that has defined past rounds of bargaining in the auto industry. Union leaders have vowed to help keep the carmakers competitive while also seeking ways for workers to be rewarded as the auto industry turns around.þþWorkers at G.M. and Chrysler are barred from striking over wage and benefit disputes through 2015, a provision they were required to approve when the companies received federal loans as they went through bankruptcy protection in 2009. Their only recourse in the case of an impasse is binding arbitration, a somewhat unpredictable process that both sides have said they want to avoid.þþA major theme for the union during these talks has been regaining much of what workers gave up to keep their employers from collapsing under the weight of heavy debt and plummeting sales. But the union also wants to add jobs in the United States after suffering years of wrenching cutbacks at the three carmakers.þþMr. King, the U.A.W. president, has said U.A.W. members each ceded $7,000 to $30,000 worth of pay and benefits since 2005. In 2007, the union agreed to create a two-tier wage system that allowed the carmakers to cut costs by hiring new workers at about half the pay of other workers.þþMany in the U.A.W. oppose the two-tier system, but Mr. King has said it is a way for the companies to become more competitive without cutting pay for existing workers and helps create jobs. Only about 4,000 of the 112,000 workers at G.M., Ford and Chrysler earn second-tier wages currently, but the companies hope to hire more people at the lower pay scale as older workers retire, further reducing their labor costs.
Source: NY Times
