By Michael Ellis
STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich., Jan 21 (Reuters) - A senior United Auto Workers' union official said on Tuesday a new plant that DaimlerChrysler AG is considering building in Georgia will have to be unionized if it plans to sell a Dodge version of its Sprinter commercial vans.
"I told the corporation that if the Sprinter has got the Dodge label on it, that truck will be built by UAW members," UAW Vice President Nate Gooden, director of the union's DaimlerChrysler department, told reporters during a briefing at a Chrysler plant here.
DaimlerChrysler has said that it is considering building a new plant in Pooler, Georgia, to manufacture and assemble a Dodge version of its Mercedes Sprinter van, a boxy, diesel-engined commercial van currently manufactured in Germany and sold in Europe.
Gooden said that all Dodge cars and trucks sold in the United States have been made by union members, and the Sprinter would be no different. "It's got a Dodge tag on it, it's going to be a UAW plant no matter where it's built," he said.
Gooden's comments signaled that the status of the plant will be a part of the upcoming negotiations towards a new UAW contract. The current four-year contract with the powerful union expires in September.
DaimlerChrysler currently sells the Sprinter under the Freightliner brand in the United States. Freightliner is DaimlerChrysler's U.S. commercial truck unit. Freightliner's non-union U.S. plants have been a source of contention between DaimlerChrysler and the union.
"It will be a unionized plant. It will be part of the talks," Gooden said.
"Same with the new engine plant," he added, referring to a new joint venture engine plant that Chrysler plans to build with Mitsubishi Motors Ltd. and Hyundai Motor Co. Ltd. in the United States.
The joint venture engine plant will be built in either Michigan, Indiana or Illinois and will begin manufacturing engines in 2005, with an expected output of about 600,000 engines a year, Chrysler officials said.
The engines will be used in Chrysler, Mitsubishi and Hyundai vehicles built in the United States.
Gooden also said that the UAW may be able to sweeten the pension plans of its members, and the union would not allow the company to raise the co-payment premiums on health care coverage.
Health care costs and pension expenses are expected to be top agenda items in the negotiations in September, when the UAW contracts with General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. also expire.
John Franciosi, senior vice president in charge of labor relations with Chrysler, said it was too soon to speculate on the negotiations.
"Obviously we've got some competitive disadvantages that we're going to try to address," he told reporters, referring to gaps in wages and benefits compared to Asian and European automakers. "Obviously some of those issues are going to be difficult issues."