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UAW members attend a meeting in December, 2008, in which they were given details about their imminent layoffs at a GM plant in Warren, Mich.Spencer Platt

Just as members of the United Auto Workers endured wage and benefit cuts during the restructuring of the U.S. auto industry, they will want to share in the gains when the industry recovers, says the man poised to take over as president of the union later this year.

"We want to make sure when things turn around we also share in the upside," Bob King told an industry conference in Detroit.

His comments send a signal that the cuts in bonuses, pensions and benefits UAW members gave up were temporary moves to help the Detroit Three survive the crisis of 2008-2009.

His remarks come after Chrysler Group LLC reported an operating profit in the first quarter of 2010 and Ford Motor Co. posted a $2.1-billion (U.S.) profit in the same period. General Motors Co. is expected to report a profit when it releases first-quarter financial results next week.

The improved financial results are being driven by massive cost cuts - and the elimination of tens of billions of dollars in debt at Chrysler and GM - but also by a slow recovery in vehicle sales in the U.S. market. Confidence is growing among industry analysts that U.S. sales will bounce back close to pre-recession sales levels in the 16 million range annually later this decade.

"If we come back to a 16 million [seasonally adjusted annual rate] the profitability of the Big Three is going to be astronomical," Mr. King said Monday.

His view that workers need to share in the upside was echoed by Canadian Auto Workers president Ken Lewenza.

"Workers have made the sacrifices," Mr. Lewenza said in a telephone interview.

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CAW members gave up vacation, bonuses, cost of living adjustments and agreed to reduce benefits in other areas as well as extending their contracts with the Canadian units of the Detroit Three one extra year, to 2012.

In the United States, the UAW took over financing of retiree health care from the companies, gave up Christmas and other bonuses and agreed to two-tiered wages and the elimination of retiree health care for newly hired employees.

"We had to work together if the companies were going to survive," said Mr. King, who is a UAW vice-president and heads the union's Ford department.

The givebacks at Ford amounted to between $7,000 and $30,000 per work, he noted.

He criticized Ford for restoring merit increases and payments to retirement plans for managers.

"That's wrong," he told reporters after the conference. "Our membership gave tremendous sacrifices, we had an understanding about equality of sacrifice."

The UAW will go into bargaining with Ford next year, but gave up the right to strike at Chrysler and GM during the next set of contract talks in 2012 as part of agreements negotiated before those two companies went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The two-tiered wage system at UAW plants and the reduction in skilled trades workers will give the Detroit Three a labour cost advantage by 2013 to 2015 over offshore-based auto makers operating in the United States, said Sean McAlinden, executive vice-president of research of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.

That's a sharp turnaround from the pre-crisis situation.

Mr. McAlinden's figures show GM's labour costs per vehicle produced amounted to $3,289 in 2006, compared with $1,895 for the North American operations of Toyota Motor Corp.

About $950 of the gap was the cost of retiree health care, which has now been shifted to the UAW to finance.

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