Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler won thousands of job cuts from the Canadian Auto Workers to try to compete with lower labor costs at rivals such as Toyota Motor Corp. The U.S.-based automakers may seek bigger reductions in 2007 talks with U.S. unions.

The Canadian union accepted the elimination of about 3,100 jobs, or about 8 percent of the 41,000 workers it represents at the companies. GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler agreed to invest in some Canadian factories and forestall closing others. A GM agreement last night wrapped up the negotiations.

``The Canadian talks established the starting point for the U.S. talks and that could mean the United Auto Workers will have to give up 30,000 to 50,000 jobs,'' Dennis DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Auto Consultants in Toronto, said today.

The U.S. companies, particularly GM and Ford, are seeking concessions on health care and other costs as well as plant closings in North America as they lose U.S. market share to Toyota, Nissan Motor Co. and Hyundai Motor Co. Asian automakers last month captured a record 39 percent of the U.S. market, as the share for Ford, GM and Chrysler fell to a record low.

GM had a $1.39 billion first-half loss and Ford's North American auto operations have lost money in three of the past four quarters. Chrysler had told the Canadian union it couldn't afford to maintain wage and benefit increases of past contracts.

The four-year U.S. contracts between the three automakers and the UAW expire in September 2007. The UAW represents 250,000 workers at the three companies.

Paul Krell, a spokesman for the Detroit-based UAW, declined to comment on the Canadian union's negotiations or the estimates of job reductions in the U.S. union's next talks.

Already Seeking Concessions

Even before its next contract, GM wants the UAW to help cut health-care costs that the Detroit-based company expects will reach $5.6 billion this year and to trim 25,000 U.S. plant jobs by 2008. GM already has idled two U.S. factories that it can't officially close until the union agrees in the next talks. Ford Chief Executive William Clay Ford Jr. said last week his company has more U.S. plant capacity than it needs.

``The U.S. unions are already negotiating every day,'' said analyst Sean McAlinden of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. ``The cost cuts the automakers need can't wait until 2007.''

GM and Ford may seek to eliminate a total of at least 37,000 jobs in the negotiations with the UAW, he said. Job losses for the union's members may reach 60,000 under the 2007 agreements, including the three automakers and Delphi Corp. and Visteon Corp., the biggest U.S. auto-parts suppliers, McAlinden said.

GM, Ford Issues

GM hasn't resolved discussions with the UAW about ways to reduce health-care expenses that began months ago. The company will ``give it the time it takes,'' Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said in a Sept. 12 interview in Frankfurt.

Bill Ford said at a Sept. 22 briefing that his company will ``vet'' issues with the UAW before making any plant announcements. The Dearborn, Michigan-based company's new CAW contract calls for closing a Windsor, Ontario, casting plant as part of about 1,100 job cuts.

The UAW's total membership was 654,657 last year, less than half of the peak of 1.5 million in 1979. The union's ranks have declined as the number of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. has dropped and as automakers such as Toyota and Nissan that use nonunion labor have built a larger percentage of new factories.

In 2004, 12.9 percent of U.S. wage and salary workers were union members, a decline from 20.1 percent in 1983, according to the federal Labor Department.

1998 Strike

The most recent UAW strike against GM was in 1998 at two Flint, Michigan, parts factories. It shut down 26 of the company's 29 North American assembly plants, canceling production of 318,000 vehicles and slashing profit by $1.3 billion.

The Canadian union hasn't had a strike at the automakers since a 22-day walkout against GM in 1996. Negotiating an agreement without a strike was important to the automakers because they build some of their best-selling vehicles in Canada, such as Chrysler's 300 sedans and GM's Silverado pickup trucks. Ford makes engines in Canada for its F-Series pickups.

The three U.S.-based automakers account for about a quarter of the CAW's total membership of 265,000. The Canadian union, which broke off from the UAW in 1985, also represents workers in industries such as railroads, airlines, trucking, casinos, shipbuilding and fishing.

Final CAW Agreement

GM and the CAW ended this year round of talks with an agreement last night about 40 minutes before an 11:59 p.m. strike deadline, with the company agreeing keep a plant open in exchange for more than 1,000 job cuts. Union President Buzz Hargrove said many of the jobs will be eliminated by attrition.

General Motors committed to investing in three Oshawa, Ontario, plants that produce Silverado pickups and car models including the Impala, Hargrove said. The company also will invest in a St. Catharines, Ontario, engine plant and won't demolish part of that factory as it had intended, he said.

Union members will vote on the agreement this weekend, CAW spokesman Jim Pare said. The Ford contract was ratified by 95 percent of its CAW members and the Chrysler agreement was approved by 86 percent of that automaker's CAW workers. The Ford and Chrysler contracts are similar to the GM accord.

The GM agreement and the contracts at the other two companies call for wage increases of 1.4 percent this first year and 0.9 percent in each of the next two years. The raises are smaller than in previous accords.

Ford, the first of the three automakers to get a new contract with the union, got its job reductions as part of an accord that also calls for investing C$200 million at a St. Thomas, Ontario, car plant and keeping open a Windsor engine factory.

Chrysler, the third-largest U.S. automaker, reached a deal on Sept. 20 that calls for an investment of C$575 million in a Windsor minivan plant. The Auburn Hills, Michigan-based automaker also will keep open a Toronto casting plant while cutting jobs there. The union agreed to manufacturing changes that would reduce employment and improve efficiency at Windsor and a Brampton, Ontario, plant that makes the 300 sedan.

To contact the reporters on this story: Bill Koenig in Toronto at wkoenig@bloomberg.net; Jeff Green in Southfield, Michigan, at jgreen16@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 28, 2005 16:01 EDT