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No deal yet with UAW
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September 15, 1999: 12:28 a.m. ET
Organizing nonunion plants not in contract, but still a key to talks
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - A midnight deadline came and went without an agreement between the United Auto Workers union and DaimlerChrysler. But the union and the company said that talks would continue into the night.
Shortly after midnight, the UAW and DaimlerChrysler announced that the union had extended its pact with the automaker indefinitely. That could be seen as a gesture of good faith as the talks move into the wee hours of the morning, or it may mean that DaimlerChrysler may lose the coveted position as the lead contract.
For the last week and a half, the union has adopted an unprecedented dual-lead strategy by talking to both Daimler and General Motors Corp. But in recent days it appeared that DaimlerChrysler had taken the lead with union president Stephen Yokich.
The indefinite extension presumably opens the door for GM to again possibly take the lead. GM went into the night of negotiations without an extension, but was granted one as the midnight deadline neared. The union gave a similar extension to Ford Tuesday afternoon. The union tends to give such indefinite extensions to the companies that are not in the lead position.
Companies prefer to have the lead position because it allows them to focus the negotiations on their key issues.
The extension came after five UAW locals launched unauthorized strikes at key DaimlerChrysler pickup truck, minivan and parts plants in Missouri and Indiana to protest the slow pace of talks.
Despite the action, there seemed little appetite by autoworkers or especially the automakers for a work stoppage at this time of record auto sales.
DaimlerChrysler (DCX) and General Motors Corp. (GM) both reportedly offered lifetime job guarantees for senior UAW members in preliminary talks, proposals that Yokich told reporters were as good as any initial offers he had ever seen.
Automakers are also hoping for a contract longer than the standard three-year agreement as a way of fixing labor costs and guaranteeing labor peace at a time of very strong auto sales.
But as the hours grew short, the talk in Detroit was that the key issue is something that may never appear in the contract - the union's desire for promises by DaimlerChrysler that would make it easier to organize nonunion U.S. plants owned by the automaker.
The UAW is eager to represent 1,300 production and maintenance employees at a Mercedes assembly plant that opened in Vance, Ala., in January, 1997, as well as 1,151 at a plant assembling heavy trucks for Freightliner Corp., another DaimlerChrysler subsidiary, in Gastonia, N.C.
An official with the company said the union wants an office in the plant, declarations that unionization would not lead to plant closure and access to phone numbers of employees. The UAW also wants the company to agree to recognize the union if more than 50% of eligible employees sign union cards -- rather than forcing the union to hold an election to win the right to represent employees.
"We understand Mr. Yokich's desire to organize those other plants that came into the family with Daimler's purchase of Chrysler," said a company official who spoke Tuesday on a not-for-attribution basis. "Technically, legally they're not part of this contact. But realistically, we all know those kinds of discussions over what constitutes company neutrality can affect the tone of bargaining."
The UAW represents about 75,000 members at DaimlerChrysler, about 148,000 at General Motors Corp. and about 103,000 at Ford Motor Co.
Even with job guarantees, that number has been shrinking and is likely to continue to decline as the car markers become more productive, members retire and as the automakers outsource more to suppliers who pay about half of the UAW scale at the Big Three.
It is crucial to the UAW's future that the union make more inroads at nonunion suppliers and assembly plants. This contract with DaimlerChrysler could be a test of whether the union can use the car makers' desire for labor peace to help it open the door to organizing efforts.
In past negotiations the union has picked one of the three companies as lead or target company, and negotiated with them up to or just past the deadline, with the other companies waiting on the side with contract extensions.
Ford Motor Co. (F) reached an indefinite contract extension with the UAW Tuesday afternoon, according to company spokesman Edward Miller. But Edd Snyder, spokesman for GM, said as of late afternoon there had been no contract extension granted there.
Talks continued with both DaimlerChrysler and GM for much of the last week in what UAW called a "dual lead" strategy." Although DaimlerChrysler apparently moved into a de facto lead position in recent days. The lack of an extension at GM could be a seen as pressure on the German-owned automaker to settle or lose its chance to be the coveted lead contract. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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