Early returns show support for Fiat Chrysler pact with autoworkers: newspapers

While Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne had acknowledged that the two tiers couldn’t continue long term, he also said that Fiat Chrysler is at a huge competitive disadvantage because it’s so much smaller than other top automakers.

Hours after 77 percent of workers with Fiat Chrysler voted in favor of a four-year deal, the union announced GM would be its next target company, leaving Ford Motor Co.to wait for its turn at the negotiating table. For the 2011 contract, Fiat Chrysler workers were paid $3,500, while UAW members at GM got $5,000 and those at Ford received $6,000. The UAW is expected to soon name the company with which it negotiates next. It is the UAW that functions as a company union and tool of management and the Obama administration, while “posing as friends of working men and women”.

Fiat Chrysler workers in Toledo begin voting today on a new tentative contract offer.

Forty percent or more workers at Fiat Chrysler are entry level. And as Automotive News reported earlier this week, the draft contract specified no new vehicle production at FCA’s Conner Avenue plant in Detroit, where Vipers are built by hand by a team of roughly 80 employees. Under this current pact, his pay will jump to about $28-an-hour in four years-about a $9- an-hour pay bump from the wage he earns now.

While GM’s worldwide third-quarter earnings of $1.4 billion were down slightly from a year earlier, they exceeded Wall Street expectations as profits in North America more than offset slower growth in China and losses in Europe and South America.

The Fiat Chrysler agreement also includes an improved profit-sharing formula, according to the UAW.

“Our operating circumstances are different than Fiat Chrysler”, said Chuck Stevens, GM’s chief financial officer.

UAW leaders have rallied members this year by saying “this is our time” to reap rewards after rounds of concessionary contracts since 2007 when the Detroit Three automakers were reeling financially.