Chrysler Pact Provides Wage ‘Parity-Plus’

A tentative three-year contract settlement reached early today would give about 70,000 U.S. Chrysler Corp. workers “parity-plus” with General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. employees, including staggered wage increases of 5.25% and bonuses in excess of $2,000, union officials said.

“I’m very tired . . . but I do have a smile on my face and I might say it’s a very broad one,” United Auto Workers President Owen Bieber said as he emerged early today from a 42-hour negotiating session to announce the settlement. (Story, Page 6.)

“Our goal in these talks was to match the full auto pattern set last year at GM and Ford. We have done that and we have gone even further.”

Bieber said he would put the three-year agreement before a Thursday meeting of the Chrysler Council, made up of 170 UAW local leaders. A rank-and-file vote was planned Friday and Saturday, and officials on both sides said workers could return to their jobs Monday.

Under the U.S. pact, Chrysler workers will receive a pay raise of 2.25% in the first year and a bonus for helping save the auto maker from bankruptcy.

Each worker will receive a bonus in excess of $2,000. Retired workers will receive a $1,000 bonus and surviving spouses of workers will get $600.

In the second year, workers will receive a “lump sum” bonus of 2.25%, based on the previous year’s earnings, excluding overtime. A 3% wage increase will go to workers in the third year.