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UAW Sets Chrysler Strike Deadline
Chrysler already has plans to shut down some assembly plants because of weak consumer demand, so the potential effects of a strike remain unclear.
(By Adalyn Ruggiero -- Associated Press)
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"If they don't have it hammered out by 11 o'clock Wednesday morning, I expect we'll go," said Bill Campbell, financial secretary at UAW Local 1268 in Belvidere. "Everybody's got questions. Unfortunately, we don't have a great deal of answers."
The big subject on the Chrysler bargaining table is the cost of health care for union workers. In its deal with the union, GM won an agreement to unload $50 billion in health-care obligations by creating a $35 billion, union-run trust fund. Officials at Ford and Chrysler said they want to create similar trusts, but it was not clear how the Chrysler and Ford funds would be financed.
Chrysler is still trying to win an earlier set of health-care concessions that the union gave to GM and Ford in 2005. Company officials estimate the savings from those concessions would have saved Chrysler $340 million annually. At the time, union workers balked at the deal, which included wage cuts for workers and added health-care costs for retirees, because the company was making money as a unit of Daimler Chrysler.
Slowing sales for trucks and sport-utility vehicles soon soured Chrysler's financial condition. Worker resistance to the health-care demand was cited as key factor by Daimler Chrysler shareholders who wanted the Chrysler branch divested.
Last month's GM strike ended after the automaker gave the UAW promises that new products would flow into GM plants in the United States instead of being built overseas. The UAW was growing alarmed as Detroit automakers continue to build plants in low-wage countries abroad while closing auto factories at home.
Chrysler chief executive Robert L. Nardelli has identified international growth as a key focus of what he has called the "New Chrysler." Last year, Chrysler entered an agreement with a Chinese automaker to import Chinese-built cars to the United States and Europe.
Like GM and Ford, Chrysler is also seeking more leverage in outsourcing more union jobs and giving incoming union workers lower pay scales and less generous benefit packages. Assembly workers at Chrysler make about $28.75 an hour, a wage that would balloon after UAW health-care and other benefits are added.
Chrysler is reportedly looking to shed non-core assets, such as parts-distribution warehouses. Chrysler has 22 warehouse facilities across the country with about 2,700 workers.
