UAW Local 723 votes to join national contract
10/1/2011DUNDEE — Members of United Auto Workers Local 723 at Chrysler Group LLC’s Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance plant in Dundee have voted nearly unanimously to abandon their separate individual contract with the automaker and join the UAW’s national agreement with Chrysler, which is currently being negotiated.
Unit Chairman Tom Zimmerman said 99 percent of his 400 members who cast votes agreed to join the next national agreement. Workers at the plant — who were required to have either an engineering background or a journeyman’s card from a recognized craft — will remain at a pay rate equivalent to other Chrysler skilled trades workers instead of production workers.
Under the new agreement, the plant could hire new workers at a reduced second tier rate in place in other Chrysler plants, Mr. Zimmerman said. Chrysler’s contract with the UAW expires Oct. 19 and GEMA’s Oct. 14.