AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) — Negotiators for Chrysler and its workers union launched contract talks Wednesday amid pressure for profits and market share that could make the negotiations less than congenial. The company said the outcome could be “significantly different” from the previous contract.

United Auto Workers president Ron Gettelfinger and Chrysler president Dieter Zetsche smiled and shook hands before the doors were closed and the session began.

Talks with General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. are to begin later this week. The UAW and Detroit’s Big Three will spend several weeks hammering out contracts covering wages and benefits for more than 300,000 hourly workers.

The current contracts, negotiated in 1999, expire Sept. 14.

After the talks started, Gettelfinger told reporters he would not identify a single issue as more important than any other.

“There are some more difficult than others,” he said. “We’ll just deal with the issue of one day and move forward.”

John Franciosi, Chrysler’s senior vice president for employee relations, also would not discuss specifics, but he said he did not expect the new contract will greatly mirror the 1999 pact, which was considered generous.

“The environment today is significantly different,” he said.

Observers say a strike is unlikely, but talks are expected to be difficult given an industry landscape that includes increasing competition from foreign automakers, unprecedented levels of profit-eroding incentives and rising health care costs.

Union leaders have said they’re confident the parties can reach an equitable agreement, but they also have made clear they’re not prepared to make concessions on health care benefits and wages.

Meantime, the auto companies are under intense pressure from Wall Street and investors to trim expenses and boost profitability.

“If you look back in history, there have been times when one side or the other has said “Here’s an absolute. We’re not going to budge,”‘ said John Revitte, a professor at Michigan State University’s School of Labor and Industrial Relations.

“The union might hold firm on health care,” Revitte said. “But there will be some give and take in other areas to make up for it.”

Gettelfinger has said the union’s bargaining priorities include preserving, if not enhancing, gains made in previous contracts. The 1999 pacts included 3 percent annual pay hikes, a ban on plant closings and health care that was nearly cost-free for workers.

But that deal was negotiated in much more lucrative times for automakers. To understand how business has changed in the past few years, look no further than the combined bottom lines at the Big Three in 1999 ($18.3 billion) compared with last year ($1.3 billion).

“If the union is looking for business as usual this time around, they’re not going to get it,” said David Healy, an analyst with Burnham Securities Inc.

No issue looms larger than health care.

GM, Ford and Chrysler have repeatedly said rising health care tabs represent one of their biggest cost disadvantages as they try to compete with foreign automakers, whose comparable U.S. obligations are minuscule.

Last year, GM, the world’s largest automaker, spent $4.5 billion on medical care for 1.2 million U.S. employees, retirees and dependents.

Ford chief financial officer Allan Gilmour said recently the automaker spent $2.8 billion last year on health care costs – more than it spent on steel for cars and trucks.

Some benefits experts say health care expenses will grow by double-digit margins in the next few years if nothing is done.

Gettelfinger insists the UAW will not budge from its position of not accepting more of the financial burden for workers and retirees. “We’re not going to pick up premiums, we’re not going to pick up copays, we’re not going to pick up deductibles,” he said last month.

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On the Net:

DaimlerChrysler: http://www.daimlerchrysler.com

Ford: http://www.ford.com/

General Motors: http://www.gm.com/

United Auto Workers: http://www.uaw.org/

AP-ES-07-16-03 1408EDT