Labor Talks Open With Ford, GM

DETROIT _ UAW President Ron Gettelfinger kicked off contract talks Monday with General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. by saying the union is not just fighting for autoworkers _ but for a way of life that seems to be slipping away for the middle class.

“There’s no question that the gap you have between the rich and the poor continues to widen. We’re watching the evaporation of the middle class,” Gettelfinger said during a news conference at Ford headquarters.

“We are fighting for, defending the middle class. We’re fighting for good jobs for Americans. It’s not just about us. These negotiations are about everybody. … We’re bargaining for our country as a whole.”

Gettelfinger and the rest of the UAW leadership had a busy Monday as they began work toward reaching a new deal before the current UAW national contract with the three automakers expires Sept. 14.

The union president started the day in formal business attire when he launched talks with GM at 9:30 a.m. CDT at the UAW-GM Center for Human Resources in Detroit. Gettelfinger and UAW Vice President Cal Rapson formally kicked off talks by shaking hands with GM CEO Rick Wagoner and Diana Tremblay, GM’s chief labor negotiator.

Just after noon, Gettelfinger and his team, in dressed-down attire, launched talks with Ford in Dearborn, Mich. Gettelfinger and UAW Vice President Bob King shook hands with Ford Chairman Bill Ford, CEO Alan Mulally, as well as Marty Mulloy, Ford’s top negotiator and other top executives.

The UAW kicked off talks with Chrysler early Friday.

While some experts have questioned the ability of some automakers, especially the struggling Ford, to survive a strike, Gettelfinger emphasized that the union is not entering the talks in a concessionary mood and that a strike is still a possibility.

He also said the union already has done a lot during the last four years to help the automakers.

“I think it’s fair to say that we have given a lot,” he said.

Nearly a hundred retiree protesters were on hand outside the UAW-GM center to make a case for keeping their current level of benefits.

Reducing labor costs _ including health care and pension costs _ is critical to Detroit automakers’ survival as they compete against Japanese automakers, industry experts say.

Detroit’s automakers say their labor costs average more than $25 per hour more than their Japanese competitors and that gap must be closed for them to remain competitive. The UAW, however, contends that labor costs represent only 10 percent of the price of a new vehicle.

Because of this gap, workers have been concerned about suggestions that the UAW and the automakers will agree to move retiree health care obligations to a special health trust fund that would be overseen by the union.

“We want to ensure we keep our pensions and health care,” said Jannette Stange, 55, who marched with her husband Chuck, 63, who retired from a GM plant in Flint, Mich., and has throat cancer.

GM retiree Bill Cook, 65, also retired from a GM plant in Flint, marched to put pressure on the company and the union to protect retiree pensions and health care: “We want them to do the right thing.”

At Ford, media questions centered on the company’s very survival.

After losing a record $12.6 billion in 2006, Ford is in the midst of its Way Forward turnaround plan. That effort already calls for closing 16 plants, eliminating 44,000 hourly and salaried jobs, as well as revamping cars and trucks.

Ford has said it is not expecting its North American operations to be profitable again until 2009.

So far this year, for example, Ford’s sales in the United States are the worst in the industry among the major automakers, down 11.2 percent overall. And later this week, the automaker is expected to post losses of nearly $700 million for the second quarter, which would bring total losses for the year to about $1 billion.

When asked whether Ford’s financial situation was any worse than that of GM or Chrysler or deserving of more sensitive treatment, though, Gettelfinger did not seem convinced.

“It just depends on who you talk to, and they’ve got a lot of cash by the way,” Gettelfinger said of Ford.

While Ford has $35 billion in cash on hand, much of that will be needed to sustain Ford until it becomes profitable.

During his remarks, Gettelfinger took a jab at the amount of pay executives receive, suggesting that shared sacrifice will be important to the union as it goes on.

And both GM and Ford officials made it clear they would like to be picked as a target in negotiations. The UAW traditionally has negotiated a contract with one automaker first and then pushed for the other automakers to match that deal. However, the UAW did not do that in 2003, choosing to talk to all three at once.

Gettelfinger has not said what his strategy will be this year.

GM’s Tremblay said being picked as the target would have its advantages. “When you’re the lead, you have a better chance to control your destiny,” she said.

Mulloy agreed, saying it would give Ford the chance to “lead the discussions with the UAW” and set a national pattern that works for Ford.

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