The president of the United Auto Workers said Thursday that the tentative agreement reached with Chrysler LLC follows the pattern by the union’s deal with General Motors Corp. (GM), though he added that the union can make small adjustments depending on the company it’s dealing with.

He also said he expects similar terms with Ford Motor Co. (F), which is the remaining U.S. auto maker to deal with the UAW.

“We like to do a little, you know, adjustment, depending on the company that we’re at,” UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said during an interview on Detroit radio station WJR 760 AM. “But in this case, it’s basically a pattern agreement.”

On Wednesday, the UAW reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year labor contract with Chrysler after short strike that lasted less than seven hours.

The deal, if ratified, would cover about 45,000 employees. The agreement, like the UAW’s deal with GM, will allow Chrysler to shift its retiree health-care liabilities into an independent trust, known as a VEBA. The deal also includes a lower wage for new hires. A sticking point with Chrysler was that it didn’t receive the same mid-contract retiree health-care concession from the UAW that GM and Ford received in 2005. Asked by host Paul W. Smith if that issue was addressed in the agreement with Chrysler, Gettelfinger said the union followed pattern bargaining.

“There’s no question Paul W. that, again, we went after a pattern agreement and we worked our way through that, and we were able to work out a VEBA with Chrysler and we’re pleased with it,” he said.

Gettelfinger repeated his stance that he thinks moving responsibility for retiree health-care payments away from companies and into an independent trust is a good move.

Also on Wednesday, the UAW said its members at GM ratified a four-year contract with that auto maker.

Now the UAW’s attention turns to reaching a deal with Ford and getting the tentative pact with Chrysler ratified.

Although Ford’s financial condition arguably is more dire than the other two U.S. auto makers, Gettelfinger said he expects to follow the same pattern.

“Ford understands pattern bargaining,” Gettelfinger said. He added that the contract is designed so that Ford “should be able to take that agreement and put it in place there.”

Gettelfinger also noted that Ford Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said the auto maker can live with the contract as patterned with GM.

The UAW typically uses the agreement it reaches with the first of the Big Three U.S. auto makers as a pattern for the other two.

Gettelfinger said he hopes to get an agreement with Ford “without any kind of altercation.”

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