AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Contract talks between Chrysler and the United Automobile Workers began Monday with promises by both sides to reach an agreement that benefits workers, the company and the American taxpayers who bailed out the nation’s third-largest automaker.
The opening of negotiations at Chrysler will be followed this week by similar ceremonies at General Motors and Ford. The current four-year agreements between Detroit’s Big Three and the U.A.W. expire in mid-September.
After years of losses and restructuring culminating in a government bailout and bankruptcy in 2009, Chrysler hopes to continue rebuilding its operations under its new owner, the Italian automaker Fiat.
Company executives said the next contract with the union could not add costs that make the company uncompetitive with foreign automakers. Four years ago, Chrysler estimated that each union worker cost $76 an hour in wages and benefits. After substantial job cuts that have reduced the company’s hourly employees in the United States to 23,000, Chrysler’s typical U.A.W. worker now costs $49 an hour.
“We have a responsibility to ensure we don’t go back to our old formula,” said Al Iacobelli, Chrysler’s vice president of employee relations. “Unfortunately, we have a rich history of not getting it right.”
However, the U.A.W.’s president, Bob King, said that union members deserved to share in Chrysler’s recent successes, which include earning a profit this year and increasing sales in North America.
Mr. King declined to outline specific goals, but said the U.A.W. hoped to add jobs and improve compensation, possibly through a new formula for profit sharing.
“Our focus is to get the best contract for our membership that makes sure they share in the upside,” Mr. King said.
The ceremonial handshake on Monday between the negotiating teams seemed more upbeat than in years past, when contract talks often deteriorated into a tense tug of war. In 2007, the U.A.W. called brief strikes at Chrysler and G.M. before reaching agreements.
But this time, the union is bound by no-strike clauses at G.M. and Chrysler that were conditions of their financial rescue by the Obama administration.
Mr. King said he did not anticipate having to go to binding arbitration with either company, nor to resort to a strike at Ford, the only American automaker to survive without federal assistance.
“It’s our job to get an agreement,” Mr. King said. “We don’t want some third party making decisions that impact our members.”
The federal government committed a total of $12.5 billion to save Chrysler. It has recovered all but $1.3 billion of that sum in a series of transactions that resulted in Fiat’s now owning a 53 percent interest in the American company.
Last week, Fiat paid the Treasury Department a total of $560 million for the remaining shares owned by taxpayers, as well as rights to buy shares held by a health care trust for union retirees.
Although the government has cut its ties to the company, both Chrysler and union negotiators said they considered it vital to reach a contract that justifies the bailout.
“We wouldn’t be standing here today talking about Chrysler without the support of the U.S. taxpayer,” said Scott Garberding, Chrysler’s head of manufacturing.
Mr. King added, “We have a larger responsibility to the American public.”
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