GM strike enters a second week

While both parties have made progress in the negotiations throughout the weekend, they remain at odds over a number of key issues and plan to return to the negotiating table on Monday morning, the protesters said.

GM, for example, is lobbied to expand the use of temporary workers to give it more flexibility when sales slow down or market conditions change, while union negotiators want to limit the practice. The UAW argues that these workers earn lower wages for the same tasks as full-time employees and should have a safer path to permanent employment.

The union is pushing to shorten the eight-year phase-in period for new recruits to reach the highest salaries, a provision put in place during the 2015 negotiations, the official said. The parties are still negotiating over the duration of this period, they said.

Profit sharing also stays on the table. GM has proposed to improve the formula, which currently pays workers $ 1,000 for every $ 1 billion in North American pre-tax profits that the company earns each year, said the negotiating group's relatives.

In recent years, GM has paid annual profit sharing bonuses of more than $ 10,000 per worker. The union is pushing to extend profit sharing payments to temporary workers, whom the company is resisting, said the people.

The two sides are also discussing ways to mitigate the impact of GM's decision to close several US plants, including the possibility of building a new battery plant in the same area of ​​northwestern Ohio, where GM has closed a large assembly plant, said these people.

GM has begun talks to keep the focus on labor costs, fearing a potential slowdown in the US auto market after nearly a decade of force. The company had angered the union several months before the start of negotiations with its decision in November to close four US plants, as part of a broader plan to reduce fixed costs while further directing investments to future bets on driverless and electric vehicles.

Job security and the fate of these factories, including GM's assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, are at the center of negotiations. The Lordstown plant was shut down last spring after demand for its only model, the Chevrolet Cruze, disappeared. GM negotiators said in bargaining sessions that there were no new models to reserve for Lordstown, people close to the talks said.

As a compromise, GM proposed to create a nearby electric car battery factory that would employ several hundred workers, helping to offset the job cuts associated with the closure of the Lordstown plant, said these people. About 1,400 people worked in this plant before it closed.

The union said GM's latest proposal before the contract deadline, submitted shortly after 22 hours. September 14 came too late to avoid a strike. This proposal included the battery factory. Discussions on the details of the plan continue, said the relatives of the negotiations.

In addition, GM is trying to facilitate the sale of the plant to a new startup that wants to build electric trucks.

GM would work in partnership with at least one outside company to establish the battery plant and ensure that the plant is staffed by workers represented by the UAW; people said.

For example, UAW workers at a GM plant in suburban Detroit, where batteries are assembled for use in electric vehicles, earn between $ 15 and $ 17 an hour. The wages at the proposed battery cell plant would likely be in this range, people said.

The location of the plant and the ability for GM to own and operate it could not be learned.

GM presented the idea of ​​the battery plant as a way to help UAW find jobs in areas likely to grow, with automakers investing more in electric vehicles. Workers at a large battery factory in Michigan operated by

LG Chem

are not represented by the UAW.

"There are all sorts of new technologies coming up and it's becoming a trap for the union to be part of it," he said.

Kristin Dziczek,

a union expert at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She said the union would be careful not to set lower standards for these jobs.

While battery-powered cars still represent only a fraction of the US market, the UAW may lose jobs in engine and transmission manufacturing plants as GM and other automakers invest more in electric vehicles .

"It's about getting a foothold before these new technologies become dominant," said Dziczek.

The UAW is trying to prevent the decline of its membership and is conducting a federal corruption investigation that has resulted in nine convictions.

Anger against GM among core members of the UAW and their dissatisfaction with union leaders as a result of a criminal investigation could make it more difficult to reach an agreement. An agreement in principle between GM and the UAW requires a majority vote to be ratified. In 2015, Fiat Chrysler workers rejected the first agreement in principle before making a second richer agreement.