UAW Ponders Next Steps as Workers Reject FCA Labor Pact

United Auto Workers union leaders are convening in Detroit today to consider next moves after some 40,000 of the UAW's members rejected a proposed four-year national labor agreement with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV by a margin of 2:1.

The union could opt to return to the bargaining table, launch a strike against FCA or suspend talks with the company and shift its focus to negotiations with Ford and General Motors. The UAW's contracts with all three companies expired at midnight on Sept. 14.

Analysts say the tentative agreement disappointed workers by falling short on wages, work practices and assurances about FCA's future product plans.

The agreement narrowed but didn't erase the two-tier wage scheme workers agreed to at FCA in 2011. Instead, the pay gap would have dropped to $5 per hour by 2019 from about $9 under the previous contract. The deal also did not force FCA to reduce the proportion of its total workforce who could be employed at the lower wage rate. About 45% of the company's current hourly workforce in the U.S. is paid at the lesser rate roughly twice the percentage at Ford and GM.

Workers also were uneasy that the tentative contract did not include details about where FCA plans to produce its cars, trucks and powertrains over the next four years. Such plans, which infer job security for employees in U.S factories, were a part of the previous contracts with FCA, Ford and GM.

Finally, reports say FCA workers were angered that the proposal did not end a current work schedule practice, which forces them to periodically switch between day and night shifts.