UAW supports 4-year contract

The council members, made up of local union presidents and chair, will return home to provide contract details to the 75,000 rank-and-file members. The members will vote on the contract Saturday.

"This is a good contract," Yokich said. "A lot of old problems got cleared up in this."

Among those problems that were cleared up were job security and improved pension benefits, he said.

Yokich said the contract is a reward for helping the automakers through the tough times. "It's our turn now that things are good," he said.

The average DaimlerChrysler worker would receive an average of $29,300 in wage increases and bonuses during the next four years under the proposed contract, The Flint Journal reported yesterday.

Union officials said last week the deal also includes an agreement not to spin off any parts of the company into independent businesses.

Such a clause might be aimed more at GM and Ford than DaimlerChrysler. GM has spun off its Delphi parts unit, and Ford would like to spin off its Visteon parts unit, a move the UAW opposes.

"That provision is fairly interesting. It will be particularly interesting at Ford," said David Cole, director of the Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation in Ann Arbor. "At DaimlerChrysler and GM it's a little more academic."

Despite that, Yokich said he does not expect difficulty in getting similar contracts at GM and Ford.

"I don't think it's going to be difficult. The pattern is there," he said. I don't think anybody is going to say we don't want to take the pattern. I think it will work out."

When pressed further for comment, Yokich said he will worry about Ford after the UAW has finished with DaimlerChrysler and GM.

Yokich said he will be at GM on today for talks there. He said he does not expect an agreement until after UAW members vote Saturday on the DaimlerChrysler contract. The union has not set any deadline with GM for reaching an agreement.

The tentative contract with DaimlerChrysler includes improved job security, but does not include job guarantees for individual workers, Yokich said.

The Journal reported that if employment drops below 80 percent of a set level, the automaker must replace each job that is lost. However, if employment slips to 90 percent, only one of every three positions must be filled.

With the signing bonus, annual wage increases, annual $600 year-end bonuses, overtime and shift premiums, the typical autoworker could net an extra $29,300 during the next four years, sources told the Journal.

According to DaimlerChrysler, its average assembly worker is 43 years old and earns about $70,000 a year, because of overtime and profit sharing. The same worker gets 37 paid vacation days a year.

The basic monthly pension would increase from $40 to $47.45 per year of service during the life of the contract. That means workers with 30 years of service, who are eligible for Social Security payments, would see their monthly pensions increase from $1,200 to $1,423.50 during the next four years.

For someone who retires under the 30-and-out program and is not yet eligible for Social Security, monthly benefits would rise from $2,295 under the current pact to $2,730 by the end of the new agreement.

The proposed contract also calls for an increase in basic pension benefits by nearly 20 percent for workers who retired before October 1984, the union sources said.

The company also increased the lump sum payment retirees will get, the sources said. If inflation increases by up to 2 percent a year, retirees would get a lump sum of $885. Under the contract negotiated in 1996, they got $480.

Meanwhile, Ford of Canada faces a strike deadline today at 11:59 p.m. EDT by the Canadian Auto Workers union. Talks between Ford and CAW bargainers continued until 1 a.m. yesterday and resumed later in the day, Ford spokesperson Jim Hartford said. "There's been steady progress, but there's still a lot left on the table," he said.

George Peterson, president of Los Angeles-based AutoPacific Inc., said a strike in Canada could cause Ford plants in the United States that build the profitable F-Series pickup trucks to shutdown because the V-8 engines, which are popular in the pickups, are made in Canada.

"That could be catastrophic if Ford runs out of engine capacity," he said.

The V-8 also is used in Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators.

Peterson said he couldn't say exactly how long it would take, "but it would be a relatively short time."

Ford Windstar minivans and Ford Crown Victorias and Mercury Grand Marquis sedans also are made in Canada.

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