UAW sets 2-day voting period for Fiat pact

DETROIT — The United Auto Workers union has decided to condense the voting period on its new agreement with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to just two days as it tries to avoid some of the problems that led to the rejection of its first agreement with the automaker earlier this fall.

Union members are scheduled to vote on the tentative agreement Oct. 20 and Oct. 21, according to a person familiar with the schedule who was not authorized to disclose it publicly.

A UAW spokesman declined to comment on the voting process, which was first reported by The Wall

Street Journal.

That new schedule contrasts with a two-week voting process in September on an earlier agreement that saw voting results from many UAW locals leak out before all workers had voted. As those results became public it became clear workers were voting against the agreement and workers who voted last appeared to matter less than those who went first.

That agreement was rejected by 65 percent of Fiat Chrysler workers who voted.

The UAW reached a new tentative agreement with the Detroit-area automaker last week and plans to hold informational meetings to explain the changes at UAW locals before workers vote.

For example, three meetings will be held on Tuesday at UAW Local 1268, which represents workers at the automaker’s assembly plant in Belvidere, Ill., to explain the contract.

The UAW also has adopted a much more aggressive social media strategy aimed at engaging directly with its members on Facebook to explain the agreement. That strategy also contrasts with the union’s restrained approach after the first agreement was reached.

A majority of the 40,000 workers represented by the union must vote in favor of it for it to be ratified.

Under the new agreement, entry level workers will see their hourly pay increase from $15.78 to $19.28 per hour to $29 over a period of eight years. The contract that workers rejected would have only taken workers to a top wage of $25.35 per hour and was seen as falling short of promises made in 2011.

If ratified, the new agreement also provides entry level workers with a $3,000 signing bonus and longtime workers with a $4,000 signing bonus. Workers hired before 2007 still get 3 percent pay increases in the first and third years of the contract and 4 percent lump sum payments in the second and fourth years.

The two sides also have agreed to meet within 60 days to revisit complaints about alternative work schedules that are hard on workers.

A summary of the new contract provides more detail, plant by plant, on jobs and future product changes as part of Fiat Chrysler’s plans to invest $5.3 billion in its U.S. plants over the next four years. UAW President Dennis Williams said the overview of the product plan should help ease concerns workers have about the future of their plant and job security.