Bloomberg News has reported that the new FCA-UAW contract would raise “second tier” (2009 and newer) employees’ salaries up to $29 per hour, up from the original $25 per hour deal, bringing them extremely close to senior workers’ pay — after eight years. The deal would still have no cap for the “Tier 2” (lower pay) workers.

Because the company had been cut so deeply under Daimler and then Cerberus, and has grown so much since, FCA US has more “Tier 2” employees than GM or Ford — 45% of the hourly workforce is on the lower pay schedule.


The UAW brought FCA back to the negotiations with the threat of a strike, which would have started tomorrow, throughout the FCA US factory network (though possibly not at every site). FCA US does have  76 days worth of cars on inventory, but certain models are selling well enough to keep their plants on overtime — particularly Jeep Wrangler.