(The Associated Press circulated the following story by John Porretto on September 19.)
DETROIT — The United Auto Workers wrapped up tentative labor contracts with the Big Three automakers Thursday and concluded two months of talks in which a common yet unprecedented theme emerged: Labor and management sought to take a joint stand against foreign competitors.
”Since the start of these negotiations, one of our goals was to bring this industry together,” UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said Thursday after the UAW reached terms on tentative, four-year contracts with General Motors and supplier Delphi.
The agreements were announced more than three days after previous contracts expired. UAW earlier this week reached tentative agreements, also for four years, with Ford, DaimlerChrysler’s Chrysler Group and supplier Visteon.
Only sketchy details of the accords have been disclosed. The UAW appears to have sacrificed generous wage increases that characterized the 1999 deals to maintain nearly cost-free health care. In exchange, according to sources familiar with the talks, the automakers apparently gained flexibility to close or sell plants to better align supply and demand.
The 1999 agreements banned plant closings.
All agreements require ratification by rank-and-file union members, a process that’s expected to take place within the next 10 days. The GM contract generally mirrors the others in economic terms, Gettelfinger said, but he declined to discuss details.
In addition to more than 300,000 automotive workers across the country, the contracts affect another half-million retirees and their spouses.
The new agreements were negotiated at a time when the U.S. market share for GM, Ford and Chrysler is at an all-time low, and foreign automakers continue to expand domestic lineups and capacity.
Gerald Meyers, the former chairman of American Motors and now a faculty member at the University of Michigan, said the two sides, despite having to bargain on complex issues, seemed to have a mutual goal. ”That end is to beat the daylights out of the Japanese,” Meyers said.
The combined U.S. market share of the Big Three fell to an all-time monthly low of 57.9 percent in August, while Chrysler was outsold in the domestic market for the first time by Toyota.
Two sources familiar with the deals say they include a $3,000 signing bonus, a lump-sum payment in the second year and wage increases between 2 percent and 3 percent in the third and fourth years. At the end of the second quarter, a UAW-represented assembler earned $25.63 an hour.