The union started out demanding a 40 percent raise in wages over four years, and has come down to 36 percent. It also demanded that the automakers reinstate regular cost-of-living adjustments to wages to protect against inflation, a benefit the workers lost in 2009. And it wants an end to a tiered system of employment that leaves newer workers on a lower wage scale, with lesser benefits.
For retirement benefits, full-time workers hired after 2007 get 401(k) accounts with a company contribution equaling 6.4 percent of a worker’s base wages. The UAW wants the companies to restore defined-benefit pensions that workers previously received and to pay all the health-care costs for retirees.
The union has also demanded a 32-hour workweek (with pay for 40 hours); the right to strike over plant closures during the course of the next contract; and, in the event that an automaker does close a plant, provisions that would force the company to continue paying workers indefinitely to do community service.