From left, UAW President Bob King; Scott Garberding, senior vice president, Chrysler Group; and Al Iacobelli, vice president employee relations listen to a question at a news conference at the start of national contract negotiations at Chrysler Group LLC headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich., Monday. A Chrysler 200 is shown in the foreground.By DEE-ANN DURBIN and TOM KRISHER
AP Auto Writers
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – To help American carmakers stay in business, autoworkers grudgingly gave up pay raises and some benefits four years ago.
Now that General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are making money again, workers want compensation for their sacrifice. Just how much they get is the central question hanging over contract talks that start this week between Detroit and one of the nation’s largest and most powerful unions.
The negotiations, the first since Chrysler and GM took government aid and emerged from bankruptcy, will set wages and benefits for 111,000 members of the United Auto Workers, including those at Ford, which avoided bankruptcy by taking out massive private loans. The UAW’s four-year contracts with the Detroit Three expire on Sept. 14.