The United Auto Workers and the Big Three Automakers will not reach a contract agreement before the midnight deadline Sunday night. Instead, both sides will continue talks until a new contract is reached. Negotiations have been ongoing for nearly two months. The current contract expires at midnight Sunday night.
But by 9 p.m. Sunday, local union leaders told News Ten that an agreement was unlikely before then.
Nationally, the contract will affect more than 300,000 UAW members. Key issues include wages, health care and pension benefits, as well as job-loss and the closing of plants. Industry analysts say the union is not negotiating from as strong a place as during the last negotiations in 1999. During that time, car sales were booming, but now, sales are down.
Local union leaders say they expect negotiations to continue. Members at local 602 voted by more than 95-percent to support a strike.
