Chrysler, UAW bargain as strike deadline approaches
Thursday, 11 October 2007
SOUTHFIELD, Michigan, Oct 10 (Bloomberg): Chrysler LLC and the United Auto Workers continued to bargain over jobs and health care past midnight, hours before a deadline for the first strike at the automaker in 10 years.
More than 45,000 UAW workers at the third-largest US automaker may walk off their jobs at 11am New York time today. In a similar showdown last month, General Motors Corp. workers staged a two-day walkout before agreeing on a four-year contract.
Ron Gettelfinger, 63, the UAW president, is negotiating for a Chrysler contract patterned after the GM accord, including job guarantees in exchange for a union-run retiree health-care trust. He's bargaining for the first time with Chrysler's new owner, Cerberus Capital Management LP, a New York buyout firm.
GM, Ford and Chrysler have said retiree health costs are part of the reason they must pay $25 to $30 more an hour for American factory workers than Japanese rivals Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co pay at their US plants. In 2005, the UAW agreed to health-care concessions with GM and Ford that diverted pay increases to finance retiree health care.
More than 45,000 UAW workers at the third-largest US automaker may walk off their jobs at 11am New York time today. In a similar showdown last month, General Motors Corp. workers staged a two-day walkout before agreeing on a four-year contract.
Ron Gettelfinger, 63, the UAW president, is negotiating for a Chrysler contract patterned after the GM accord, including job guarantees in exchange for a union-run retiree health-care trust. He's bargaining for the first time with Chrysler's new owner, Cerberus Capital Management LP, a New York buyout firm.
GM, Ford and Chrysler have said retiree health costs are part of the reason they must pay $25 to $30 more an hour for American factory workers than Japanese rivals Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co pay at their US plants. In 2005, the UAW agreed to health-care concessions with GM and Ford that diverted pay increases to finance retiree health care.