Chrysler Unions Not As Compliant As GM's

A couple of weeks ago the United Auto Worker's (UAW) union members working for General Motors (GM) OK'd a new contract. That contract allowed GM to dump it's responsibility for retiree benefits onto the union, allowed it to close several plants and reduced wages for some non-skilled workers.

At the time, I was mystified as to why the union members approved such a poor contract. Evidently, many Chrysler workers don't understand that either. Seeing the GM workers fall into line so easily, Chrysler tried to pass off the same kind of contract on its workers. They got the national UAW office to agree, but the workers aren't going along so easily this time.

So far, only the local in Kenosha (Wisconsin) has approved the contract. Five other locals have rejected the contract -- Detroit (Michigan), St. Louis (Missouri), Newark (Delaware), Fenton (Missouri) and Twinsburg (Ohio). A majority of the Chrysler workers nationwide must approve the contract for it to take effect. Otherwise, negotiations must continue.

Many locals have not yet reported, and the contract could yet be approved. But it certainly looks right now as if it will probably be defeated. It doesn't look like these workers want the same contract GM workers agreed to.

If negotiations are to continue, it might be good for Chrysler's workers to demand new union negotiators. They agreed to a bad contract with GM, and have recommended the same bad contract to Chrysler's workers.