42-Hour Bargaining Marathon : Chrysler, Union Agree on New 3-Year Contract

Chrysler Corp. and United Auto Workers negotiators agreed early today on a tentative three-year contract that would return 70,000 striking workers to the job, the union said.

The agreement, announced at 3:15 a.m. eastern time by UAW President Owen Bieber and Vice President Marc Stepp, ended a bargaining session that began at 9 a.m. Monday and stretched more than 42 hours.

“We are extremely proud that the determination and solidarity of our members at Chrysler has resulted in a tentative contract that achieves every one of our goals,” the union leaders said in a statement.

The United Auto Workers of Canada ratified a separate contract with Chrysler on Monday and its 10,000 members returned to work later in the day, ending a strike in that country.

Canadian union leader Robert White credited Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca’s personal intervention over the weekend with getting Canadian contract talks moving.

Biber said the new three-year contract, which runs until Sept. 14, 1988, gives workers wage increases of 2.25% in the first year and 3% in the final year. He gave no figure for the second year and said full details were being withheld pending consideration by 170 local union delegates at a UAW Chrysler Council meeting in Detroit Thursday afternoon.

Bieber said ratification voting by the striking workers should be completed by Sunday, with all workers expected to be back at the job by Monday.

He said the contract agreement provides “full parity” with terms given UAW members at General Motors and Ford Motor Co. and has additional provisions in the third year of the contract.

The contract continues one year beyond the life of the Ford and GM contracts and will also extend about 11 months beyond the Canadian Chrysler agreement.

Chrysler Industrial Relations Vice President Thomas Miner said “It’s been a long eight or ten days--but it’s been worthwhile.”

He said Chrysler believes the new contract is “good for the company and good for Chrysler employees and their families.”

The negotiation session was surpassed in length only by the 45 hours bargainers spent in 1967 reaching settlement on a contract for Ford with the UAW.

A news blackout was imposed on the Chrysler American talks at noon Tuesday when Bieber and UAW Vice President Marc Stepp issued a statement saying they were making “important steps in the right direction.”

The strike by Chrysler workers began at 12:01 a.m. Oct. 16 and cost Chrysler $60 million in lost sales in the first week.

Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca spent several hours near the negotiators during the marathon session but his role in settlement of the strike, the first since 1973 against Chrysler in the United States, was not immediately revealed.

He was instrumental, however, in helping UAW-Canada reach agreement on a 23-month pact last Sunday. That agreement gave the 10,400 Canadian workers wage parity and a lump-sum payment for past concessions when Chrysler approached bankruptcy in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The continuing U.S. strike had threatened to send the Canadian Chrysler workers back on the streets because of parts shortages.

The Canadian strike cost Chrysler an estimated $36.5 million. Production of about 1,500 vehicles a day was lost.

The UAW’s top priorities were job security, wage parity with GM and Ford and a stop to the practice of outsourcing--contracting production to non-union producers. The 170 UAW delegates, who met at Huntsville last Saturday, gave Bieber the go-ahead for a hard-line stand in the talks.