Fisker, UAW aim to reach labor deal

DETROIT (Reuters) - Fisker Automotive, a California-based start-up car company, expects to complete a deal with the United Auto Workers before year-end for the union to represent workers at an old General Motors Corp plant it is acquiring.

"We're doing some negotiations with the UAW that are going to go through in the coming months," Henrik Fisker, the company's founder and chief executive said.

Speaking at the Reuters Autos Summit in Detroit, Fisker said he expected to close the deal to buy the GM plant by January and would look to complete initial negotiations with the UAW before then.

Fisker is buying a Delaware assembly plant from the bankruptcy estate of General Motors Co GM.UL and has ambitious plans to develop a number of plug-in hybrid vehicles it would build and export from the facility.

Fisker announced last month that it was buying the old GM plant, which once produced the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky sports cars, for $18 million.

Part of the funding to retool that plant to build plug-in hybrid vehicles would come from $528 million in low-cost loans from the U.S. government under a U.S. Department of Energy program to spur the development of more fuel-efficient cars.

Fisker said he had been encouraged by his meetings with UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and was confident that he could reach a deal with the union that would give the company low enough costs to allow it to export half of the output of the Delaware plant, which is expected to reach 100,000 units annually.

"I think from the talks we have had with the UAW and Ron Gettelfinger and some others in the organization that they're ready to make this a success and they're committed to it.

"We're ready to work with them and for this to be a success," Fisker said.

The U.S. auto industry has lost tens of thousands of jobs during a four-year downturn that has taken sales to the lowest level since the early 1980s.

Gettelfinger, who also attended the Reuters Autos Summit, said he was also confident a deal could be reached.

"These guys seem to have it together. If you look at speed of execution for a start-up, it seems sort of amazing what they can do," Gettelfinger said.

"We're very hopeful that we'll be able to represent workers there," he said.

Other automakers, including Asian automakers, have looked to build new factories in Southern states outside the area of traditional influence of the UAW.

But Fisker said the Delaware plant acquisition would be much cheaper than that alternative.

"One of the things that drew us was the skilled work force. If you're a start-up you could maybe go somewhere in the South and buy a greenfield and invest hundreds of millions of dollars," he said.

"But I think what's important for Fisker is to get skilled workers who have assembled cars and who understand what it takes to build a car."

(Reporting by Kevin Krolicki, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)