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UAW Mulling New Contract Strategy Next Week

The United Auto Workers union will hold its bargaining convention in Detroit next week to draw up its strategy for negotiating a new contract with American automakers. President Bob King will lead the convention from March 22 to March 24 at the Cobo Center in Detroit, according to Detroit News.

While the current agreements are valid until September, King wants workers to be compensated for the sacrifices they have made until now in order to keep the big three in business. He has stated that UAW members each gave $7,000 to $30,000 in concessions since 2005.

"All the sacrifices that our members made to turn these companies around were part of the process that's really led to this amazing turnaround," King said in a January interview. "We want our membership to share in a very meaningful way in the upside of these companies."

In order to help General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC survive and avoid bankruptcy, UAW agreed upon surrendering raises, bonuses and cost-of-living adjustments. The union also agreed to a two-tier wage system, under which new employees receive about $14 an hour, about half the amount paid to senior production workers.

King wants to also reorganize the US factories of Asian or German carmakers, such as Toyota Motor Corp. and Daimler AG. The UAW President has stated that he expects to organize at least one nonunion automaker this year.

The ‘new’ GM has managed to earn $6.2 billion last year, while Ford, the only major automaker to avoid bankruptcy, had net income of $6.6 billion last year, its best result since 1999. Chrysler, posted a net loss of $652 million last year and forecast net income of as much as $500 million this year.
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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