Chrysler Workers OK Pact, Ending Their 12-Day Strike
Rank-and-file union workers at Chrysler Corp. voted overwhelmingly to accept a new three-year contract, ending their costly 12-day nationwide strike, the United Auto Workers announced late Sunday.
Marc Stepp, a UAW vice president and leader of the union’s Chrysler department, said that unionized production and maintenance workers ratified the new contract by 87% to 13%. Skilled trades workers, unionized engineering, office and clerical employees, and workers at company parts depots also ratified the contract by similar margins.
Returning to Work
As a result, some of Chrysler’s U.S. workers began returning to work on the midnight shift Sunday for the first time since Oct. 15. All of Chrysler’s 70,000 union workers are due to report to work today, a company spokeswoman said.
Separately, Chrysler’s 10,000 striking workers in Canada went back to work last Monday after a tentative settlement was reached between Chrysler and the newly independent Canadian UAW.
The overwhelming vote in favor of the new U.S. contract had been widely expected, mainly because the agreement satisfies virtually all of the union’s major wage and non-wage demands. The company received little in return, except an end to the walkout, which had been costing the auto maker about $17 million a day in lost profits.
Labor Costs Cited
Chrysler officials say that the contract will increase the company’s labor costs by more than $1 billion over the next three years. It will eliminate the labor cost advantage over General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. that Chrysler has enjoyed since its workers granted it wage concessions between 1979 and 1981 to keep the company afloat.
The contract also will give Chrysler workers cash bonuses of $2,120 as partial reimbursement for the $1 billion worth of wage concessions they gave Chrysler. A 3% hike in base wages called for in the third year of the agreement is also the largest annual percentage wage increase negotiated in the domestic auto industry since 1979.
