Detroit Free Press, October 22, 2007, Monday

Detroit Free Press, October 22, 2007, Monday

freep.com

Deal in jeopardy as locals vote no
Strike, a return to talks among options
October 22, 2007

BY TIM HIGGINS

FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

If UAW members turn down the national labor deal with Chrysler LLC, Bill Parker, the union's bargaining committee chairman, says he expects UAW President Ron Gettelfinger will go back to the automaker for something better.

"I am hoping that Ron is there to represent us and that if the membership says clearly that we can't accept this, that he will do the right thing and go back into negotiations to improve it," Parker, president of Local 1700 in Sterling Heights, told the Free Press.

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The outcome is still up in the air, but rejection is a possibility. Several large locals have voted against the deal, including bellwether Local 7 at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit on Sunday.

Parker and other opponents of the tentative agreement hope for more future product guarantees.

But several collective-bargaining experts caution that extracting a better agreement is neither simple nor guaranteed. They say a range of outcomes could result if the Chrysler agreement fails, including a revote, a return to negotiations, another strike or the company locking out workers and even hiring replacement ones.

"If the contract is not ratified they have to go back to the bargaining table and negotiate, but what that usually means -- or can typically mean, not always -- is that they will not get a better deal, they will get a worse deal" from the union's perspective, said Arthur Wheaton, a labor expert from Cornell University. "Because the UAW leadership, Gettelfinger in this case, would lose face and lose credibility."

Several big locals still to vote

Six locals representing around 11,000 of the UAW's 45,000 Chrysler workers have so far rejected the proposed contract. The previous contract was to expire Sept. 14, but was extended during talks that led to the new deal Oct. 10.

On Sunday, Local 7, which represents about 2,200 workers at Jefferson North, went about 60% against the deal, a person familiar with the results told the Free Press. That plant was in line for a new generation of crossover vehicles and had been lobbied by UAW leaders.

Since voting started Thursday, at least seven locals representing around 9,000 workers have voted to accept the contract, including locals at two engine plants, which have been promised future products.

The UAW leadership gained a notable victory Saturday with contract approval at Locals 412 and 889, which represent an estimated 2,700 workers at a variety of Chrysler locations, according to a person familiar with the voting results.

Local 212, which has about 1,400 members at Detroit-area locations, approved the deal over the weekend as did Local 624, which represents about 2,000 workers at the New Process Gear transmission facility near Syracuse, N.Y. The New York local accepted the contract Sunday with 88% of voters approving it.

Several large locals plan votes Wednesday night, including Parker's local at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant.

Meanwhile UAW spokesman Roger Kerson disputed a person's characterization in the Sunday Free Press that Chrysler had worked recently to "sweeten the pot" to make the contract more appealing to temporary workers at the Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois.

"It is not accurate that the company has tried to 'sweeten the pot' at Belvidere during the past week by promising a $3,000 signing bonus for temporary workers there," Kerson told the Free Press on Sunday. "In fact, those workers were entitled to the bonus by the terms of the tentative agreement, which was reached by the parties on Oct. 10."

Lockout deemed unlikely

Canadian Auto Workers President Buzz Hargrove, a seasoned bargainer who is not part of these talks, said a failed ratification vote could mean the UAW will return to the bargaining table "and try to deal with the issues that caused the rejection and try to soften those issues." He also said the UAW could "wait a bit" and have another vote among its members.

He doubted the company would lock out workers and hire replacements because of the state of the industry.

"I don't think Chrysler can afford to lock anybody out," Hargrove said. "That's an option. The UAW could set a strike deadline."

Wheaton, the Cornell labor expert, said another strike could result in Chrysler hiring permanent replacement workers.

"They would be legally entitled to just lock them out and permanently replace everybody," he said. Wheaton added that the option doesn't mean it will happen.

"Many times the lack of a ratification is (the result of) a poor education or poor communication between the international and locals," he said.

The proposed 4-year Chrysler agreement shifts retiree health care costs from the company to a trust and creates a two-tier wage system in which new hires to non-core jobs will be paid about half the rate of current workers.

Chrysler says it has made commitments at all but four of its UAW-represented facilities, and the UAW tells its members that the automaker has identified more than $15 billion in potential investments.

Unlike the General Motors Corp. labor agreement, which was ratified by 66% of workers Oct. 10, the Chrysler agreement does not give many specific future product guarantees.

Deal's opponents talk tough

A skilled-trades committeeman, Shawn Fain at Local 1166 in Kokomo, Ind., recommended voting against the deal in a letter on the union's Web site, saying he told UAW leadership that in approving the deal "you might as well get a gun and shoot yourself in the head."

Marsha Christie, whose husband has worked at the Chrysler Trenton Engine Plant for nearly 40 years, said they believe it was the best deal possible with Chrysler under the new ownership of Cerberus Capital Management.

"We feel the new ownership is not going to give much more," she said. "And personally what is the problem with new hires starting at $14? No one said they would never get raises. My husband started at something like $3.25 a hour, when there weren't any robots."

Contact TIM HIGGINS at thiggins@freepress.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.