The Windsor Star, October 11, 2007, Thursday

The Windsor Star, October 11, 2007, Thursday

The Windsor Star (Canada)

Chrysler, UAW pact reached
Strike lasts 6 hours, no shutdowns here

Chris Vander Doelen, Windsor Star

More than 9,000 Chrysler Canada workers and thousands more workers in Windsor-area parts plants were expected to work normal shifts today instead of facing shutdowns, after the UAW strike against Chrysler in the U.S. lasted only six hours.

A tentative deal was achieved within hours of the strike deadline, even though it was said to be "more complicated" than the one at General Motors, which came after a 40-hour strike.

TENTATIVE DEAL
A tentative deal was broadly based on the pattern established by the GM deal, the parties said. It includes a new health care trust fund for retirees, as did the GM deal, as well as other changes to the national agreement.

Tom LaSorda, the Windsor-born vice-chairman and president of Chrysler, described the new U.S. agreement as "consistent" with the GM deal. But he also said the deal "balances the needs of our employees and company" with terms that "improve our long-term manufacturing competitiveness."

The UAW said it would not reveal details to the public until Chrysler workers could vote on them.

Ken Lewenza, president of CAW Local 444 and chairman of the Canadian union's Chrysler bargaining committee, said he wasn't surprised by the quick settlement.

The clue was the fact UAW president Ron Gettlefinger remained silent despite talks reportedly breaking off and 39,000 UAW members hitting the picket lines. "No news is good news," Lewenza said before the deal was announced. "It means they're close."

The talks were clearly "much more complicated at Chrysler," Lewenza said, because of new owners and two major outstanding issues between the two sides.

Despite the tradition of pattern bargaining at the Big Three -- the union and the companies generally accept similar deals at GM, Chrysler and Ford -- the union broke the supposedly golden rule twice at Chrysler in the past year.

While UAW members at Ford and GM gave up a three per cent annual wage increase, Chrysler's UAW units refused to.

And while the UAW agreed to health care benefit cuts at both GM and Ford, they rejected a similar demand at Chrysler, saying the company could afford the benefits.

The CAW and the UAW, which split more than 20 years ago, are not on cosy terms and don't often swap strategy.

"But I know what Chrysler was saying," Lewenza said of the talks at the table. Chrysler wanted the same deal that Ford and GM got. "That was an issue that had to be played out."

The presence of new owners at the bargaining table would also have been a potentially complicating factor, he said Wednesday as news of the settlement broke. There had been widespread speculation in the U.S. that Cerberus Capital Management LP, Chrysler's new owner, would take a harder line in negotiations than its publicly traded predecessors.

SIMILAR FUND

The new contract includes a fund for retiree health care similar to the one set up at GM, LaSorda said in a statement.

The companies will have to transfer billions to a trust fund administered by the union on behalf of retirees. GM put about $30 billion into its fund. Chrysler's retiree ranks are a fraction of the size of GM's.

"Neither side can really afford a long strike, so it's no surprise they settled quickly," David Lipsky, a labour relations professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., said in an interview.

UAW members at GM ratified their contract on Wednesday with a vote endorsed by two-thirds of those who voted.

© The Windsor Star 2007