Area Development
The leaders of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union are schedule to meet this morning in Detroit, with a press conference scheduled for 11:15, according to the Detroit News. Local leaders will reportedly discuss with UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and other union officials the union's position on renegotiating its workers' contracts with General Motors (GM), Ford Motor Company, and Chrysler LLC. All three automakers, in the reorganization plans submitted to Congress yesterday, said they intend to re-open their 2007 labor agreements with the union. Union compensation has been a sticking point in the companies' requests for government aid, since workers at foreign-owned automakers, who are not covered under UAW contracts, are said to receive considerably lower hourly compensation than their UAW counterparts, a fact that the UAW disputes in a Q&A section on its website. The UAW presently represents 139,000 active workers.