The third and final tentative contract between a Big Three automaker and the United Auto Workers will get a look-over this week.
The UAW announced the deal between Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and North America's largest auto union on Saturday. The next step is for the agreement to go before the UAW-FCA National Council in a scheduled Wednesday meeting, then a vote on Friday by the rank-and-file. The UAW represents over 47,000 FCA workers in the United States.
FCA released a two-sentence statement on Saturday confirming that a deal had been reached. Cindy Estrada, the UAW's vice-president in charge of the UAW-FCA department, said the agreement was a product of many months of preparation.
"Our UAW Bargaining Committee worked diligently, over many months, during the General Motors strike and Ford negotiations to maintain productive negotiations with FCA," said Estrada. "The pattern bargaining strategy has been a very effective approach for the UAW and its members to negotiate economic gains around salary, benefits and job security. In addition to the $4.5 billion in major investments previously announced, negotiators secured an additional $4.5 billion for a total of $9 billion of investments, adding 7,900 jobs during the contract period."
Terms of the agreement will not be released publicly until the National Council has met to examine it.
FCA was the final Detroit-based automaker to complete the contract process with the UAW. General Motors was first to negotiate, but an impasse resulted in a weeks-long strike. Ford was second.