Detroit News: Marick Masters on FCA, UAW talks
The potential merger between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and French automaker Groupe PSA of the Peugeot brand could complicate contract talks between FCA and the United Auto Workers. Fiat Chrysler under the proposed combination would surrender majority control of the new company's board of directors to PSA, and some UAW members fear a combined company would pit them against European workers for product allocation. But a bigger and richer company could better compete in the future and provide opportunities to produce more in the United States. The UAW "could try to use these negotiations to steer as much as that business to locate here like battery production," said Marick Masters, a management professor at Wayne State University's Mike Ilitch School of Business. "Any merger comes with its own concerns, but I think the wave of the future is one involving consolidation."
