Much rides on the success of GM-UAW negotiations

The stakes couldn’t be much higher in the ongoing negotiations between the Detroit Three automakers – General Motors, Ford and Fiat-Chrysler – and the United Auto Workers union representing 140,000 front-line employees. For companies, workers and communities alike, much rides on successful outcomes of the talks toward new multi-year labor contracts.

For the GM Lordstown assembly plant and the Mahoning Valley economy, the need to achieve such positive outcomes is urgent and compelling.

That’s why the tentative agreement reached between the UAW and Fiat-Chrysler earlier this week holds promise for keeping the automobile industry here and across the U.S. on the road to additional growth. The Fiat pact is designed to serve as a template for separate negotiations now commencing with Ford and GM.

The fact that it was ironed out within hours of expiration of the previous contract indicates that labor and management representatives took the talks seriously with a recognition of each side’s respective wants and needs. And although most details of the settlement have not yet been released, it’s a safe bet that many compromises were forged to appeal to each side’s agendas.

The speedy settlement also bodes well for ongoing production, which has been buzzing at a brisk pace in recent months and years throughout the industry after a crippling decline during the Great Recession. It also wards off the potentially destructive effects of a strike by UAW members employed by Fiat-Chrysler and possibly other companies as well.

For the automobile companies, a settlement that does not incur overwhelming additional costs in wages and benefits means that innovation and investment likely will continue at a brisk pace. Since the 2011 UAW-GM National Agreement, GM has invested about $12.4 billion in its U.S. facilities to support new product programs that include refreshed or all-new models from the Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac brands. In total, this investment has created 6,250 new jobs and secured the positions of about 20,700 employees, according to GM.

Huge investment

Locally, GM has invested about $300 million into its Lordstown Complex to make way for production of the hot-selling Chevrolet Cruze and its next-generation model hitting showrooms soon. Lordstown also has beefed up the size of the workforce and the number of shifts at the plant to reinforce its status as the Mahoning Valley’s largest employer and most powerful economic engine.

For the 140,000 autoworkers across the country, including the 4,500 at Lordstown, the new model agreement with Fiat-Chrysler looks like a win-win as well. Early reports indicate that the new pact includes more robust profit-sharing opportunities and a progression to higher wages for entry-level workers, who currently make about half the $29 per hour that longtime workers are paid. The latter issue has long been a sticking point for the UAW membership.

For communities, a strong mutually agreeable contract would stabilize and strengthen the positive impact of payroll and other taxes, spinoff industries and economic ripple effects from automaking companies. In Lordstown, for example, plant employees make a $450 million annual impact on the local economy through wages and payroll taxes.

Clearly what’s good for GM is also good for the Valley. That’s why we hope that parties to the ongoing talks between GM and the UAW engage in the same serious-minded, realistic negotiations established by Fiat-Chrysler to produce a mutually advantageous agreement.

Unrealistic labor demands and threats of organized walkouts would serve only to undermine the growth and prosperity on which the Lordstown plant has rested in recent years.

The company, its workers and our communities could ill afford such discombobulation. We therefore urge both sides of the national and local GM-UAW talks to exercise realism, compromise and cooperation to hammer out a final deal that proves mutually beneficial to all parties and that keeps the Lordstown plant reigning as the crown jewel of manufacturing in the Mahoning Valley.