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Four-year pact setting up retiree health care trust leaves Ford as last automaker in contract talks
By Dee-Ann Durbin Associated Press
Published on Sunday, Oct 28, 2007
DETROIT: Despite significant dissent among some members, the United Auto Workers rank and file narrowly passed a four-year contract agreement with Chrysler LLC on Saturday, leaving Ford Motor Co. as the last automaker in negotiations in this year's round of contract talks.
Talks with Ford were proceeding Saturday, although union leadership wasn't expected to attend and no agreement was expected over the weekend, a person briefed on the talks said. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks are private.
The union said 56 percent of production workers and 51 percent of skilled-trades workers voted for the Chrysler pact. The percentages voting in favor were much higher among clerical workers and engineers represented by the union.
The contract covers about 45,000 active workers at Chrysler and more than 55,000 Chrys ler retirees and 23,000 surviving spouses. It will expire Sept. 14, 2011.
''Our members had to face some tough choices, and we had a solid, democratic debate about this contract,'' UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said in a statement. ''Now we're going to come together as a union and now it's on the company to move ahead, increase their market share and continue to build great cars and trucks here in the U.S.''
Chrysler, which became a private company in August when it was bought by Cerberus Capital Management LLC, said the agreement will make the company more competitive.
''We are pleased that our UAW employees recognize that the new agreement meets the needs of the company and its employees by providing a framework to improve our long-term manufacturing competitiveness,'' Tom LaSorda, Chrysler's vice chairman and president, said in a statement.
The union and Chrysler reached agreement on Oct. 10 following a six-hour nationwide strike. Like the agreement ratified earlier by General Motors Corp. workers, the Chrysler contract establishes a union-run trust to cover retirees' health care and allows the company to pay lower wages to about 11,000 noncore, nonassembly workers.
At GM, 66 percent of workers ratified the deal. But at Chrysler, many workers were angered by the contract, saying it failed to make as many guarantees for future work as GM's contract. Some workers also were upset about the two-tier wage structure.
On Oct. 20, UAW Local 122, which represents 1,515 workers at the Twinsburg stamping plant, announced that 53 percent of its votes cast were against the deal.
As recently as Tuesday, the pact appeared headed for defeat after large locals in Kokomo, Ind., voted it down. But workers at four assembly and stamping plants in Sterling Heights and Warren, Mich., had a strong turnout Wednesday and voted largely in favor. The Sterling Heights and Warren votes pushed the favorable vote ahead.
At the last plant to vote, in Belvidere, Ill., 55 percent of workers opposed the contract, according to a person who was briefed on the vote.
Gary Chaison, a labor specialist at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., said the union turned things around with heavy lobbying.
''They put forth the view, very effectively, that this was the best they could do at the time,'' Chaison said. ''It's not that this was a strong agreement, but that 'If we reject the agreement, we're going into a world of uncertainty.'''
Chaison said many workers voted for the contract even though they were unhappy with it, because they felt it wasn't a good time for a fight.
In addition to going private in August, Chrysler has recently overhauled management and is reviewing its products.
DETROIT: Despite significant dissent among some members, the United Auto Workers rank and file narrowly passed a four-year contract agreement with Chrysler LLC on Saturday, leaving Ford Motor Co. as the last automaker in negotiations in this year's round of contract talks.
Get the full article here.
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