Excerpt
JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): Autoworkers and Detroit's carmakers have opened labor negotiations for the first time since escaping a near-death experience during the recession. And this time, the expectations have changed.
Kicking off with a ceremonial handshake at a plant outside Detroit, representatives of the United Auto Workers and General Motors began labor contract talks today. The union's four-year contract with the Big Three automakers expires in September. And the new round of talks comes at a critical time for the industry.
GM and Chrysler both filed for bankruptcy two years ago, and at the time, the UAW made significant concessions in wages, benefits and more to help keep the companies afloat. Now, amid some early signs of a rebound, -- GM, for example, has reported five consecutive quarterly profits -- the union is eager to regain some of its losses. Today, both sides talked about working together to remain competitive.
BOB KING, United Auto Workers: We're proving that labor and management and government and community can all work together.
At the same time, GM CEO Dan Akerson insisted it was still important to hold down labor costs.
DANIEL AKERSON, General Motors: The world is really quite brutal. It doesn't tolerate weakness in business. It doesn't tolerate uncompetitive cost structures. We have one today, and I hope we will have one upon conclusion of these negotiations.
JEFFREY BROWN: Both GM and Chrysler received tens of billions of dollar from the federal government to stave off collapse in 2009. As of last week, the U.S. government no longer owns any Chrysler shares and retains only a minority stake in GM stock.
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