UAW Rallying Support for Fiat Chrysler Contract with Promise of Higher Wages
October 08 2015 - 3:47PM
Dow Jones News
By Jeff Bennett and Christina Rogers
The United Auto Workers union will use the promise of higher
wages for entry-level workers and more clarity on future vehicle
production to rally skeptical rank-and-file members to support a
richer contract with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV after rebuffing
the auto maker last week.
New hires will be offered a wage of $29 an hour that will be
achieved gradually over an eight-year span under a new tentative
agreement hammered out late Wednesday night, according to two
people familiar with the changes. That is higher than the $25 an
hour offered in a proposed contract that was soundly rejected by
40,000 members last week, and it is about equal to the rate being
offered to workers with higher seniority.
About 45% of Fiat Chrysler's workers are considered entry-level,
much higher than the mix at Detroit rivals Ford Motor Co. and
General Motors Co.
The $29 rate is 50% higher than the roughly $19 an hour that
entry-level workers currently make. The higher promised wage,
coming after tense negotiations and the UAW's threat of a strike,
is a win for a union that has been forced to make big concessions
on health care, wages and other compensation over the past
decade.
The new rate was earlier reported by Bloomberg.
Write to Jeff Bennett at jeff.bennett@wsj.com and Christina
Rogers at christina.rogers@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 08, 2015 15:32 ET (19:32 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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