Local Chrysler workers get details on contract changes

4/28/2009

Chrysler LLC workers at the Toledo Jeep Assembly complex have been asked to show up at the United Auto Workers Local 12 hall on Ashland Avenue between noon and 4 p.m. Tuesday to pick up information packets on a new proposed concessionary contract.

Workers at Toledo Jeep will not vote on ratification, however because their contract is separate from Chrysler's national agreement and contains a clause that automatically gives them the economic terms of the national contract, union officials said.

Members of UAW Local 1435, made up of Chrysler workers at the automaker's Toledo Machining Plant, have scheduled two informational meetings and ratification votes on the proposed agreements for noon and 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Chrysler's Canadian Auto Workers ratified a similar concessionary package this week by a wide margin.

If the package is ratified by UAW workers in the United States, it would leave the automaker to hammer out a final agreement with its major creditors to keep it from entering bankruptcy.

Details of an alliance with Italian automaker Fiat SpA have already been reached, the automaker said.

Chrysler needs to have the package of concessions and new agreements done by Thursday, which the U.S. Treasury Department set as the deadline for it to consider loaning more money to the company.