Carlsbad

A bugging system that existed nearly four years allowed an employee at the Chrysler Corp.’s Pacifica automotive design center to illegally listen to management discussions during labor negotiations, a federal prosecutor alleged Friday in announcing an indictment.

The indictment charges Kevin Gregory Norman of San Diego, a former model maker at the plant, with one count of installing a concealed microphone system in the executive offices of the Chrysler plant in the 2200 block of Rutherford Road in Carlsbad.

The prosecutor, assistant U.S. attorney James W. Brannigan Jr., said Norman installed the system in 1985 to listening to management conversations during talks between the company and the United Auto Workers Union.

Norman was a member of the union bargaining committee, a plant manager said. Norman has not been arrested and is awaiting scheduling of an arraignment in federal court next week, Brannigan said.

Brannigan said the FBI began an investigation after the bugging system was discovered in office walls and ceilings by company officials in January.

The plant, which opened in 1983, designs and creates models of future cars. Ten of the plant’s 21 employees are UAW members, said a plant manager.

Alex Sweetan, president of UAW Local 509 in Pico Rivera, which represents workers at the plant, said late Friday afternoon that he was unaware of the indictment. He said design workers at the plant approved a two-year contract last summer, their second contract since they voted to join the union in October, 1985.