DETROIT -- United Auto Worker union leaders will begin crucial contract negotiations Monday with Detroit's Big Three automakers -- Ford Motor Co., Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp.

The two are reopening their national contract as part of the billion dollar bridge loan agreements GM and Chrysler made with the Washington.

Union sources told Local 4 that everything is on the table and that negotiating teams from all of the domestic automakers are in Detroit for preliminary talks and strategy sessions.

The forced reopening of the contract comes only 18 months after the UAW sealed the deal on the biggest concessionary contract in its history.

Union sources also said the talks will be careful and thorough. Even UAW President Ron Gettelfinger told Local 4 in December that he would fight what he sees as an unfair requirement of his membership.

"It appears that there's been a bit of unfairness directed toward workers in and of themselves," Gettelfinger said.

Gettelfinger said he was very concerned about what the federal government and the companies are asking of the UAW in the new negotiations that require the UAW to equal wages of the Japanese transplants.

"And they're going to use the Secretary of Labor to tell us whether we're in compliance or not? I want to see those books if that's what we have to do," he said. "I think our research people should have a right to go in and review the books of these auto companies that we're expected to benchmark against."

Gettelfinger said he knows he's boxed in but one of the things he's clearly going to fight for is to have management.

"If they want to benchmark Toyota, Nissan and Honda of America for hourly workers, why wouldn't they use that same benchmark for all of management? And I have no idea what it is," he said.

Autopacific analyst Stephanie Brinley said the UAW is stuck between a rock and hard place.

"They can't make everybody happy. And the UAW, their job is to protect as many benefits for their employees as they can," she said.

A provision of General Motors' $13.4 billion in federal loans automatically places them in default if GM's union workers go on strike, and newspaper reports say Chrysler LLC's $4 billion loan includes similar terms.

The United Auto Workers union isn't a party to the deal and hasn't threatened a strike, its most potent weapon against the Detroit automakers.

Talks are expected to continue through the week, with the possibility of new proposals on paper next week. But there is a timeline. The entire turnaround package needs to be in Washington by the end of March.

The UAW and the automakers have a Feb. 17 deadline to agree to concessions to lower labor costs.