Chrysler truck plant OKs contract

By Kevin Krolicki

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.