Silence irks some in UAW rank-and-file

United Auto Workers bargaining committees have worked late into the night several days this week, and some teams for Detroit automakers are working 12 or more hours a day in an attempt to reach tentative agreements before contracts expire at midnight Monday for 141,000 workers.

As of late Thursday, no automaker had been targeted to lead negotiations. UAW President Dennis Williams is continuing to talk with General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV simultaneously. He said earlier this week that a lead company would be chosen by the Monday deadline.

Those on both sides of the table are keeping developments close to the vest. Williams and his team are restricting discussions to small circles of union leadership in an attempt to avoid rumors and speculation, which many say is representative of his business-like leadership style.

Messages earlier this week from UAW Vice Presidents Norwood Jewell, overseeing FCA, and Cindy Estrada, leading GM, provided no details on actual discussions. The messages said merely that the talks progressing, and the union doesn’t plan to release details to its membership until tentative agreements are reached.

“To achieve our just demands, your continued solidarity will be needed in the days that lie ahead,” Estrada wrote. “Unfortunately, the rumor mill will test that solidarity. As the deadline approaches, we expect the conversations on the shop floor to pick up, and public media reporting to intensify. Don’t believe everything you hear or read!”

Keeping negotiations out of the public eye is the goal for most bargaining committees, and these teams have been very successful at it, said Art Schwartz, president of Labor and Economics Associates, an Ann Arbor-based consultancy firm.

“You don’t want to negotiate in the press or let a leak out that will be misinterpreted,” he said. “It behooves both parties not to leak things out.”

Schwartz, a longtime labor-relations executive at GM, said the lack of information doesn’t mean a tentative agreement with at least one of the automaker’s won’t be reached by the deadline, but it is unusual for the union to continue negotiating with all three this close to expiration of contracts: “The fact that they’re going down to the wire with all three is unusual, not unprecedented.”

The lack of information coming from union leadership has irked some in the rank-and-file. Many have taken to social media and local union websites to voice concerns over the silence, as well as their high expectations for this round of negotiations.

“(Why) post this, there is no update, just the same crap over and over again!” Mike Williams, a Dundee Engine Plant worker for FCA, wrote on Facebook in reply to an update from Jewell. “Beating around the bush and no giving any information whatsoever!”

“You say your hard at work? Little info please,” wrote Daniel Sitzes, a Chrysler Kokomo Transmission Plant worker.

Others have shown trust in union leadership.

Lucius Ballard, a UAW Local 900 member, said while he hasn’t “heard anything” regarding the discussions, he trusts his union leadership to get the best deal.

“They’re on the front line for us, they’re fighting for us,” the tier-two, or entry-level, worker at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant said during a Labor Day celebration. “I’m confident in my union that they’re going to take care of it.”

UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles, a third-term vice president leading Ford negotiations, has provided no public updates. Members of the Ford-UAW national bargaining committee did post a YouTube video last week. “This isn’t a contract year of concession,” Romeo Torres, chairman of UAW Local 509, said in the video. “It’s really truly just the opposite, and that’s exactly how we see it.”

The message of no concessions has been rampant among many members and retirees, who feel they should be rewarded for sacrifices made during the economic downturn. It could make ratifying contracts more contentious than in years past, despite how quiet the talks have been.

The bargaining teams are expected to continue working through the weekend. Two-tier wages, profit-sharing, pensions and health care costs all are expected to be centerpieces of discussions as the midnight deadline nears.

If tentative agreements are not reached by the deadline, current contracts are typically extended with little to no controversy. During the past two rounds of negotiations in 2007 and 2011, none of the automakers finalized a contract before the deadline.

In 2011, a tentative deal with GM was reached two days after the deadline; Ford was roughly three weeks after; and FCA was in mid-October, nearly a month after the deadline.

In 2007, GM also led negotiations, followed by Chrysler and then Ford, which had talks last until early November.

Some industry experts expect GM to emerge as the target of this year’s negotiations as early as Friday, followed by Ford and then FCA.

Heading into talks, analysts expected FCA discussions to be the most challenging, given its high percentage of second-tier workers (about 45 percent); the displeasure some workers have expressed with alternative work schedules; and significantly lower profit-sharing and bonuses.

mwayland@detroitnews.com

(313) 222-2504

Staff Writers Michael Martinez and Melissa Burden contributed.