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'Stakes Are High' As UAW Begins 2015 Contract Talks

DETROIT (WWJ) - After more than a decade of concessions, United Auto Workers members are looking for gains as they head into the 2015 contract talks.

"The stakes are high," said UAW President Dennis Williams, greeting representatives to the union's Bargaining Convention. "The pressures are real.  We know as we succeed our families succeed."

The last two negotiating sessions came as the American auto industry was teetering on disaster.  Now, the union will be negotiating with healthy car companies.

"We made some very tough choices," said Williams.   "Today our industries are the bedrock of a renewed American economy."

Those major companies have been able to improve productivity and cut labor costs, partly because they can pay newly hired workers roughly half the salary that veteran workers get.

That two tier wage system is a major sticking point with union members.

"We've got to see the light at the end of the tunnel for new hires," said Fiat Chrysler worker Jim Tieson.  "Morale is at the lowest point that we've ever seen."

Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has gone on record as saying he would like to see the two tier wage scale phased out, with veteran workers grandfathered into the older scale, and a new system set up.

Working out a compromise won't be easy.

"I think it was relatively easier to get into a two tier situation with this companies than it will be to get out." said Kristin Dziczek, who studies labor issues for the Center for Auto Research.

The car companies will be looking to tie compensation to overall company profits.  That way workers can be rewarded during good times, but share in the difficulty of tough times.

Workers say they've shared in too many tough times, and haven't had a raise in more than a decade.

"They aren't giving it to us, we have to earn it," said Kelley Peters of UAW local 600 in Dearborn.  "We earn it every day.  We have aches and we have pains.  So we earn what we get.  We think we deserve, and we think these younger workers deserve a piece of that billions of dollars they are making in profits."

Talks are expected to begin in July.  They generally intensify around Labor Day, with the union focusing on one car maker, which gets to set the pattern.

While the deadline is midnight September 14th, bargainers often go past that point just to get a contract with the first car company.  It can often take a month or more after the deadline to finalize contracts with all three car companies.

While the UAW will once again have the ability to call a strike, something it hasn't had since 2007, both UAW President Dennis Williams and GM CEO Mary Barra have said that a strike would represent a failure on everybody's part.

But Williams admits the talks will not be easy.

 

"Nothing we have fought for has been freely given.  We've had many sacrifices over the years."

Connect with Jeff Gilbert
Email: jdgilbert@cbs.com
Facebook: facebook.com/carchronicles
Twitter: @jefferygilbert

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