Hourly employees represented by the UAW union have found out how big will be their profit-sharing checks coming from the Detroit three automakers.
FCA US, formerly Chrysler Group, will award payments of up to $2,750 by the end of February, Ford hourly employees will be given an average of $6,900 for the performance last year and GM tops the chart with up to $9,000.
While the figures might sound good, the UAW workers hired before 2007 have been left without a base wage increase in at least eight years and the substantial profit-sharing (for GM workers at least) still leaves expectations among the more senior workers when the UAW starts negotiating a new contract in the latter part of the year. The rest of the UAW workers, hired after 2007 have a lower base wage to start with, receiving incremental updates each year. The automakers naturally prefer these incentive-based payments – such as profit-sharing or lump sums – instead of annual wage surges that would jeopardize labor cost control.
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