By Tim Higgins Detroit Free Press October 26, 2007
Tough times in Detroit may have aided the UAW's top leadership in securing major victories Wednesday for the national labor agreement with Chrysler LLC, something several industry experts say they believe all but ensures ratification of the controversial contract.
The final large union local to consider the proposed agreement begins voting today in Illinois. Opponents hold out hope that a major turnout by the 3,400 members of Local 1268 could still thwart a contract they say lacks enough future product guarantees and creates a two-tier wage system that could divide the union's ranks.
The UAW has not claimed victory yet and officials at Chrysler LLC aren't talking about the voting that, until Wednesday night, looked too close to call.
"The early plants had the opportunity to express anger," said Harley Shaiken, a labor expert from the University of California, Berkeley. "The later plants were looking over the edge and realized that there were few alternatives and that, in fact, this was a good agreement in very dismal circumstances."
Locals representing more than 90% of the UAW's 45,000 Chrysler members have cast their votes. While the UAW has not released official results or said how many people have voted, people familiar with the tallies say the contract has 56% of voters in favor. More than 20 union locals, representing an estimated 22,000 workers, have approved the contract.
"It looks like it is done. Even if everybody else voted against it, I think it would pass just by mathematics," said Richard Block, a labor professor at Michigan State University. "The leadership went out there and made a strong case that this is how it has to be."
Shaiken agreed the late push by UAW leadership seems to have made a difference. "In the last days, the agreement gained real traction at Chrysler," he said. "General Holiefield was really out there, effectively se lling the agreement."
Resistance not expected
The initial opposition may have surprised some UAW leaders, observers said.
Big blows to the deal came quickly when voting began last week, including defeats at assembly plants in Missouri, Delaware and Detroit's Jeep Grand Cherokee factory.
It was not until earlier this week that members of the UAW's Chrysler bargaining committee released a flyer to rebut opponents' statements against the deal and urge ratification. Holiefield and other UAW leaders also are known to have been lobbying members.
"Clearly there has been some concerted lobbying here in Detroit," said Fred Hubacker, a former Chrysler executive who is now executive director at turnaround firm Conway MacKenzie & Dunleavy.
"Maybe Detroit is easier to get the lobbying done because they're here in town. Maybe the Detroit-area workers see the reality of the situation a little bit better than the out-of-state guys."
Larry Christensen, a retired Chrysler Warren Truck worker and a vocal opponent of the contract, remains hopeful that Local 1268 in Belvidere, Ill., will rally against the deal when it votes today and early Saturday.
"I have not counted it out just yet," he said. "If the Belvidere people decide to come out in big numbers and are not intimidated by all of the top UAW people swarming all over them, then I think they could still vote in large enough numbers to pull it out."
The contract, which is similar to one General Motors Corp. workers ratified Oct. 10, shifts Chrysler's retiree health care obligations to a trust under the auspices of the union and creates a two-tier wage system in which new hires to so-called noncore jobs are paid about half the wage of core workers.
Chrysler says it has made commitments to all but four of its UAW-represented facilities, and the union says the automaker has identified more than $15 billion in potential investments. Supporters said it was the best deal possible.
What they didn't like
Opponents were unhappy that the contract did not provide the same kind of specific future product guarantees as found in the GM deal. They also were unhappy with the two-tier wage system.
Industry experts predict the agreement will make Chrysler more competitive with foreign rivals, such as Toyota Motor Corp., which have lower labor costs in the United States.
After a defeat Tuesday by two large locals in Kokomo, Ind., supporters of the deal feared Wednesday's vote could have spelled the end. Union leaders said they believed they needed to win at least two of the three outstanding assembly plants to stay alive.
Then the results started trickling in Wednesday night: First it was a win by the local at Warren Truck Plant, then the Sterling Stamping Plant, then the Warren Stamping Plant.
Then there was a wait for the results from Sterling Heights Assembly, home of local President Bill Parker, who had served as the chair of the UAW's negotiating committee and become one of the most vocal opponents of the deal.
Many thought the contract would go down at Parker's plant, but it passed easily.
By the night's end, all four locals, representing about 20% of the UAW's Chrysler membership, had approved the deal.
Sterling Heights Assembly Plant worker David May, 47, of Monroe said he was surprised that his plant approved the contract. He attributed the result, in part, to a Tuesday push by UAW leadership to better explain the details and to workers' fears about the economy.
"A lot of people are worried about having anything for a job right now. There's a lot of concern about that," May said.
The results discouraged opponents, who had begun to think they had a real chance at standing up to the powerful union leadership.
Shawn Fain, a union local leader at the Kokomo, Ind., casting plant, had successfully urged his members to oppose the deal. But he told the Associated Press that Wednesday's large wins probably gave enough votes for ratification.
"After what happened yesterday," Fain said Thursday, "I think that pretty much put it to a finish."
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