Major Chrysler UAW locals vote "no" on the new contract

Now that the new contracts between the UAW and Ford/General Motors, the United Auto Workers union can turn their attention to the pending deal with the Chrysler Group but as the results of the first wave of voting has hit the internet – there are mixed results as several major locals have voted “no” while some other groups have given the thumbs up to the new deal.

First of all, those who voted UAW-Chrysler “no” for the new 4-year deal include workers from the company’s Belvidere Illinois assembly plant, the parts plant in Perrysburg Ohio and the Warren Michigan stamping plant. Workers at the Belvidere plant voted the contract down by a margin of 56% to 44% and workers at Warren stamping turned the deal down at a similar margin of 54% to 47% while the Perrysburg component facility was far less interested in the deal, with 70% voting it down. On the other hand, Chrysler UAW workers from the automaker’s Kokomo Indiana transmission and casting business voted in favor of the deal as did Local 412, which represents workers from a wide variety of Michigan plants including the Sterling stamping facility and the Warren Truck Assembly.

Unfortunately, all of these numbers are unconfirmed as the UAW branch dealing with the Chrysler Group has decided not to publish individual results of local voting; going so far as to remove posts on Facebook announcing the results of voting around the country. This means that we will not have a real, official indication as to how the voting is going until it is finished next week. In light of this decision, an administrator of the UAW-Chrysler Talks Facebook page posted this comment:
"We will not be posting results until all of the locals have reported. This contract is to be ratified by the entire UAW represented Chrysler membership, not one local at a time. Please do not post results on this page."

When the tentative 4-year contract between the Chrysler Group and the UAW was announced last week, the early reaction from union workers was a negative one as Chrysler-UAW members voiced their displeasure about being not receiving the same perks at their peers employed with GM and Ford. This is to be expected but at the same time, Chrysler points out that they are smaller and less profitable than the other two members of the Big 3 – even though the new Chrysler plan would put their hourly workers on par with those hourly workers from GM.

TorqueNews.com will continue to cover this subject, bringing you any news as it becomes available!

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Source: Automotive News