Just hours after thousands of UAW workers went on strike at Chrysler plants across the U.S., a tentative deal was reached to bring an immediate end to the walkout, the union said Wednesday.
UAW president Ron Gettelfinger didn't release any details of the four-year pact, but said workers should report for their next shift.
"This agreement was made possible because UAW workers made it clear to Chrysler that we needed an agreement that rewards the contributions they have made to the success of this company," Gettelfinger said in a statement.
A statement on the UAW's website said the deal "protects wages, pensions and health care for our active and retired members."
Chrysler said the tentative agreement includes the establishment of a UAW-managed trust that will administer retiree health care. The newly private company didn't say how much money it will contribute to the trust.
"The national agreement is consistent with the economic pattern and balances the needs of our employees and company by providing a framework to improve our long-term manufacturing competitiveness," Chrysler vice-president and chairman Tom LaSorda said in a statement.
The automaker had been in all-night talks with the United Auto Workers leading up to a union-imposed 11 a.m. ET strike deadline. The union represents 49,000 Chrysler workers at 24 Chrysler facilities in the United States. Workers at five plants that were already idle were told not to join the strike.
Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove told CBC News earlier Wednesday that Chrysler's plants in Brampton and Windsor, Ont., would have faced imminent shutdowns because of part shortages if a strike went ahead in the United States.
The CAW leader predicted a Chrysler strike would likely not last long. "You'd have to think it would be very short," he said. "There's a lot of pressure on both the UAW and Chrysler to keep those plants running."
Chrysler is now a private company, after DaimlerChrysler sold a majority stake of its Chrysler unit to Cerberus Capital Management, a New York-based private-equity firm.
"I can't imagine [Cerberus] having these operations down for very long," Hargrove said.
Cerberus was pressing for health-care cost concessions and more freedom to contract out, according to sources cited by wire services. The UAW was seeking job security guarantees.
Last month, workers at General Motors' U.S. plants went on strike for two days before the company reached a deal with the UAW. That agreement established a two-tier wage structure and put GM's retiree debt into a UAW-run trust in return for promises of future work at U.S. plants.
Several GM plants in Canada had to lay off workers as cross-border shipments quickly dried up.
The UAW said late Wednesday that 66 per cent of its members at GM had ratified the four-year deal that had been reached last month.
