Wednesday is key in Chrysler vote

The tentative contract between Chrysler LLC and the United Auto Workers could be decided by four union locals representing more than 8,600 workers who were scheduled to vote Wednesday on the pact.

The locals, at assembly and stamping plants in Sterling Heights and Warren, represent roughly 19 percent of the 45,000 workers who would be covered by the historic four-year agreement.

They were voting a day after two locals in Kokomo, Ind., overwhelmingly rejected the deal, reached Oct. 10 after a six-hour strike.

Voting until Tuesday had been close, according to a running tally kept by the union, with "yes" votes slightly ahead.

But on Tuesday, 72 percent of about 3,000 voters at Kokomo's Local 685 and 78 percent of 737 members in Local 1166 voted against the contract, a huge defeat for UAW President Ron Gettelfinger. Local 685 has about 5,000 members.

Eight local unions representing more than 16,000 workers have now turned down the landmark pact, while six locals representing about 9,100 workers have approved it. It's nearly impossible to keep a running total because most local union officials give out only percentages and not the number of people who voted. Also, officials of some smaller locals could not be reached or would not give out results.

Gary Chaison, a labor specialist at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., said the discontent with the contract is a sign of a union in disarray.

"Each local is looking out for themselves now," Chaison said. "The larger locals, the big assembly locals see the most to lose in terms of job cuts. They feel they can oppose the national officers."

Wednesday's vote was going right to the epicenter of the union dissent, the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, where 2,500 workers make the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger midsize cars.

Local 1700 at the plant is led by Bill Parker, who also served as chairman of the union's national negotiating committee in the Chrysler talks. Parker is against the contract, mainly because he is dissatisfied with a lower-tier wage scale for many new hires of around $14 per hour and new vehicle guarantees for factories that mainly run for the life of the contract but are less than what General Motors Corp. guaranteed workers in its contract. Chrysler assembly workers now make about $28.75 per hour, according to the company.

"Two tiers of workers create divisions within the union, pressure to reduce the top tier in the direction of the second tier, and efforts to drive the second tier even lower," Parker wrote in a minority report on the agreement.

Without specific product guarantees, local unions will face demands for concessions on a plant-by-plant basis in order to get new vehicles, Parker wrote.

A few miles south of Parker's plant, Local 140 President Melvin Thompson said he is in favor of the pact, and has told that to the 2,600 members of his local at a Warren pickup truck plant.

Thompson said Parker's position on the new vehicle guarantees doesn't make sense because no promises are guaranteed beyond the life of the four-year contract.

He also disagrees that the two-tier wage scale is wrong, saying that no current worker will see their pay or jobs cut.

"The two-tier is what creates opportunity for Chrysler and new hires," Thompson said. "Chrysler gets to reduce costs and be more competitive, which we have to do."

The agreement also contains a company-funded, union-run trust that will take over retiree health care payments in 2010.

UAW workers haven't rejected a national contract since Chrysler employees did in 1982.

If the deal is rejected, Chaison said it's likely both sides will return to the bargaining table, and Chrysler and its new owners, private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, likely will throw in some product guarantees to get the deal passed at a few more large plants.

"The membership wants to feel as if they've gotten a victory out of this. If they reject the contract, they want to feel they got something for it," said Chaison, who predicted a close final vote.

Depending on the outcome in Warren and Sterling Heights, then the fate of the contract could come down to Local 1268 at a small-car assembly plant in Belvidere, Ill. The local, with about 3,400 members, is scheduled to vote Friday and Saturday.