U.S. labor chief tries to calm Fiat Chrysler worker fears

By Bernie Woodall
DETROIT, Oct 5 (Reuters) - The United Auto Workers and Fiat
Chrysler Automobiles NV FCAU.N FCHA.MI negotiators were back
at the table on Monday days after U.S. union members soundly
rejected a proposed four-year contract the two sides agreed on
three weeks ago.
The union will try to sweeten the deal for the 40,000 Fiat
Chrysler UAW members while the company will try to hold the line
on costs that were in the rejected deal negotiators reached on
Sept. 15, labor analysts on Monday said.
UAW President Dennis Williams said in a Monday morning
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) posting to Fiat Chrysler (NYSE:FCAU) U.S. union members that he
will not shift health care costs to workers from the Detroit
Three automakers as he tries to lower costs by creating a pool
of covered employees from the companies.
Workers interviewed last week by Reuters said they feared
that the UAW was trying to create a voluntary employees
beneficiary association (VEBA) like the union created for
retirees at the three automakers during concessionary
negotiations before the recent recession. The UAW thinks that is
one of the misconceptions that helped lead 65 percent of Fiat
Chrysler voters to reject the proposed deal.
Williams said, "We do not want another VEBA," adding, "We
believe that healthcare should be provided by the employer.
"What we do want is to find a way to use our collective
numbers and knowledge to be ahead of healthcare inflation rather
than to just wait for insurance and pharmaceutical companies to
simply hand over a bill to fill their own pockets," Williams
wrote on the UAW's main Facebook page as well as one for the
UAW's talks with Fiat Chrysler.
The six-paragraph posting began, "You have spoken and we
heard you."
It was Williams' first message directly to workers since the
rejection of the contract was announced by the UAW on October 1.
The proposed deal would narrow the gap between higher-paid
veteran workers and newly hired mainly younger employees and tie
some worker compensation to company profit. ID:nL1N11L13R
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Williams also tried to quell talk that the union is helping
Fiat Chrysler move jobs to lower-paying Mexico, where Fiat
Chrysler, along with every major automaker, has operations.
Sources told Reuters and other publications that Fiat Chrysler
intends to move car production to Mexico while keeping truck and
SUV production in the United States.
"For someone to suggest we endorse products going to Mexico
is just nonsense," Williams wrote.