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Fiat Chrysler, UAW Reach Tentative Agreement For Roughly 40K Union Workers

DETROIT (CBS DETROIT/AP) - The United Auto Workers and Fiat Chrysler have reached a tentative contract deal.

Many of the negotiators in contract talks between the UAW and Fiat Chrysler took a break early morning after bargaining through the night but announced a tentative deal Tuesday evening.

But as UAW President Dennis Williams said during the announcement -- neither side would give specifics about the pact until the union has a chance to vote on it..

"Our process now is that the UAW-IAB will review the tentative agreement and then vote. The councils will then be presented the TA (tentative agreement) - they will vote and then ultimately the membership will vote," said Williams.

The Full Announcement:
https://nyc.podcast.play.it/media/d0/d0/d1/d9/dI/dP/dS/19IPS_3.MP3
 

According to The Detroit News the tentative agreement affects roughly 40,000  union workers.

The union's contract with the Italian-American automaker officially expired at 11:59 p.m. Monday. But both sides agreed to extend it on an hour-by-hour basis while talks continued toward a new four-year agreement.

Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne says he was pleased with the discussions...

"The question is do you respect UAW today more than you did when you started and I'm usually the answer is 'no' in this particular case the answer is 'yes' and I have grown an enormous amount of respect for Norwood who I did not know until this process and for Dennis for having managed some rather intricate set of details in bringing us to this point," said Marchionne.

It's a good thing to have a tentative contract, that according to Tracey Rhodes who works at Fiat Chrysler's Axle plant in Marysville. He's hoping to see some kind of wage increase because he says workers have sacrificed over the years.

"Hopefully it's paid off, because we haven't had a raise in quite some time - about a decade almost," said Rhodes. "You have to take care of the new people but you have to take care of the ones that helped you get to this point."

Rhodes says he's not sure yet if he would support a contract without a wage increase.

Williams said during the announcement that the UAW was looking to find a path to reward their members for their commitment and sacrifice and find a way to meet escalating costs in health care.

Fiat Chrysler was picked as the lead company in the talks this year, making it the focus of bargaining. General Motors and Ford also extended their contracts with the UAW indefinitely.
At daybreak Tuesday, only a few cars were in the parking lot of the training center building near downtown Detroit where the talks are taking place.

The deal will serve as a pattern for pacts with General Motors and Ford.

 

 

TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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