UAW Units Draw Up Strike Plans

With about 100 days remaining on a four-year labor pact, United Auto Workers union locals are drawing up strike contingency plans to prepare members for potentially contentious negotiations with Detroit auto makers now awash in profits.

UAW officials—representing about 140,000 General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles employees—next month will begin negotiating a new deal ahead of a Sept. 14 contract deadline. After years of being barred from striking against GM and Fiat Chrysler as a condition of government-sponsored bankruptcy bailouts, the UAW this year is no longer subject to that restriction—leading some local officials to set up food pantries and others to encourage its members to sock away money in case of a work stoppage.

Wage negotiations will be taking place as U.S. auto volumes are expected to pass 17 million vehicles this year, potentially the best sales performance since 2001. Detroit car companies, on the ropes when the no-strike clause was enacted, have recovered and have reported more than $73 billion in collective operating profit since the last labor deal was signed.

Auto makers have countered strike talk with a show of support for U.S. workers. GM in recent weeks has pledged billions of dollars in U.S. manufacturing commitments that will kick in over the span of the next labor contract. The auto maker also has said it would add hundreds of jobs, helping the UAW fortify its ranks after big membership declines a decade ago.

UAW workers, meanwhile, have been awarded lucrative profit-sharing bonuses, averaging $7,500 annually at Ford and GM over the past four years. Still, members are overwhelmingly opposed to a compensation scheme in domestic assembly plants that pay veteran workers $28 an hour while those hired after the U.S. financial crisis earn $19 an hour.

The threat of a strike looms even though domestic car makers haven't had a contract-related walkout since a brief GM strike in 2007. The UAW hasn't staged a prolonged strike against a Detroit auto maker since the late 1990s.

The Detroit Three are scheduling extra production this summer to stockpile popular trucks and sport-utility vehicles, a strike-readiness move Detroit has employed ahead of past deadlines. At the same time, union leaders in local offices are advising rank-and-file members to gear up for labor actions.

In an online notice published late last month for GM workers at an SUV plant in Arlington, Texas, UAW Local 276 President Johnny Pruitte said, "We are asking everyone to start putting money aside in case a strike is called."

Mr. Pruitte noted workers were "blessed to receive" a $9,000 profit-sharing check "six months prior to negotiations since that puts us in an excellent position to protect our financial interest and realize the gains of true negotiating strategy."

Scott Houldieson, vice president of UAW Local 551 at Ford's Chicago plant, said members have held four strike-preparedness meetings so far this year, reflecting a practice at other locals. Members also are handing out buttons that say, "I'm saving to strike for a better contract."

GM workers in Kansas City, represented by Local 31, will stage a mid-June drive to fill a food pantry with nonperishables and toiletries that "will be stored at our union hall in case of a possible breakdown in contract talks at a national level with General Motors."

In a posting on its website, Local 31 officials said "no one wants a strike, it is the last resort in the collective bargaining process." The UAW last year raised membership dues for the first time in decades to fortify a strike fund that equaled about $600 million at the end of 2014, down 15% from the fund's amount in 2011.

Jeff Wright, president of Ford's Kansas City Local 249, said members have discussed the possibility of a strike at its monthly union meetings. But he described such preparations as "routine" in a contract year.

A UAW spokesman declined to comment on strike preparations. Ford, Fiat Chrysler and GM officials declined to comment.

Official strike authorization votes will be sought from UAW members in August. UAW President Dennis Williams has played down the union's willingness to hold a strike, saying it would amount to a "failure on both parties' part." Nevertheless, "we're going to be prepared," he said.

Earlier this year, during a UAW convention in Detroit, many local officials told top negotiators that workers are fed up with the two-tier pay system and are willing to do what it takes to amend the scheme. Some local officials have said Mr. Williams' negotiating team needs to better reflect the angst in the union's public bargaining statements.

Car makers are willing to consider changes but are opposed to seeing labor costs rise, according to people familiar with their positions. Even after years of restructuring, union concessions and cost cuts, total hourly compensation costs at Ford and GM remain above those paid by Japanese and German auto makers building cars in the U.S., according to the Center for Automotive Research. Ford's hourly cost, for instance, is $57 compared with $48 at Toyota Motor Corp. and $38 at Volkswagen AG.

Write to Christina Rogers at christina.rogers@wsj.com and John D. Stoll at john.stoll@wsj.com

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