Chrysler truck plant OKs contract
DETROIT (Reuters) - A Chrysler LLC truck plant in the Detroit area on Wednesday voted to approve a proposed four-year contract, throwing the weight of a key plant behind the deal on a day of ratification voting expected to determine the fate of the controversial labor pact.
More than 9,000 Chrysler workers at four major Detroit-area plants voted on Wednesday on the proposed contract, which has run into unexpectedly fierce opposition from union dissidents.
In recent days, UAW locals representing over a third of Chrysler's work force have bucked the union's leadership team and voted to reject the contract.
That dissent has threatened to scuttle the proposed contract, which was reached between the UAW and Chrysler earlier this month after a strike that ran just six hours.
Of the Detroit plants voting on Wednesday, Chrysler's Warren, Michigan assembly plant was the first to report results.
A local official said the almost 3,000 workers at the plant making Dodge Ram pickup trucks had voted to approve the contract by a 78-percent margin.
The vote represented the first major Chrysler assembly plant to vote to approve the contract. Four other assembly plants had rejected the pact.
A majority of Chrysler's more than 45,000 UAW-represented workers have to vote to approve the contract.
Other Detroit-area plants yet to report Wednesday's vote tallies include Chrysler's Warren stamping plant, and a stamping and assembly plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan.
If the contract is rejected, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger could opt to go back to the bargaining table with Chrysler executives, recess talks or push for another round of ratification votes.
The last time UAW workers voted to reject a national contract was in 1982 when Chrysler workers voted overwhelmingly against a proposed contract at a time when the automaker was bouncing back from near failure with the help of funding from the U.S. government.
UAW officials have been active in campaigning to win votes for ratification this week after appearing to have been caught off guard by the strength of a grass-roots campaign to scuttle the contract that included the chairman of the union's Chrysler bargaining committee, Bill Parker.
Parker is president of UAW Local 1700 which represents some 2,700 workers who make the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger sedans at the Sterling Heights plant.
Many Chrysler workers said they were angered by the union's failure to secure pledges from the automaker's owner, Cerberus Capital Management, that it would keep U.S. factories running beyond the 2011 expiration of the pending contract.
Others object to a historic concession that would allow Chrysler to bring in new workers outside the assembly line at just $14 per hour -- roughly half what the average UAW worker currently makes.
Chrysler's Belvidere assembly plant, which has emerged as a flashpoint in the debate over creating a second tier of union-represented workers, will vote on Friday.
That plant, which Chrysler considers an example of its success in driving down manufacturing costs, employs about 600 temporary workers under a previous agreement with the UAW.
Gettelfinger has said he wanted to wrap up a contract with Chrysler before beginning talks with Ford Motor Co.(F.N), which is seeking its own deep concessions.
That timetable would be complicated if the Chrysler deal were rejected.
Cerberus took Chrysler private in a $7.4 billion deal that closed in August. Former parent Daimler AG (DAIGn.DE) maintains a nearly 20 percent stake.
Under Cerberus, Chrysler has been looking for overseas partners that could allow it to expand its lineup and sales in new markets at a lower cost than by building up plants in the United States, which now accounts for nearly all its sales.
