Posted on 10/10/2007 8:40:04 AM PDT by EagleUSA
DETROIT (AP) -- Thousands of Chrysler LLC autoworkers walked off the job Wednesday after the automaker and the United Auto Workers union failed to reach a tentative contract agreement before a union-imposed deadline.
It is the first UAW strike against Chrysler since 1997, when one plant was shut down for a month, and the first strike against Chrysler during contract talks since 1985.
The UAW apparently is staying on the job at the five plants that Chrysler already had shut down this week because of sagging sales of some models, according to a person familiar with the walkout who asked not to be identified because the situation is in flux.
Brett Ward, a forklift driver at the Sterling Heights assembly plant in suburban Detroit, said he thinks a strike is justified, but he hopes the union can get a better deal than the one it reached with General Motors Corp.
"Hopefully with a strike we'll get some better gains and get a better contract in front of us," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at biz.yahoo.com ...
I’m thinking Far North Texas could use a good auto plant. Maybe Wichita Falls would like to have a nice big auto plant off Hwy 287 as well.
I bet the Chrysler Dealer Show in Las Vegas is a real hoot today!
CAT replaced the striking workers with management and temp workers off the street and made record profits...after almost 2 years the Union called off the strike and signed the exact same contract they walked off their jobs for. (The contract was almost exactly the Contracy GM/UAW signed last month)
In the past 10 years CAT has outsourced alot of production at the UAW plants to local mom and pop shops and has built plants in the South moving 1000's of jobs out of Peoria in the process(Thanks UAW)
CAT replaced the striking workers with management and temp workers off the street and made record profits...after almost 2 years the Union called off the strike and signed the exact same contract they walked off their jobs for. (The contract was almost exactly the Contracy GM/UAW signed last month)
In the past 10 years CAT has outsourced alot of production at the UAW plants to local mom and pop shops and has built plants in the South moving 1000's of jobs out of Peoria in the process(Thanks UAW)
My understanding is that Cerberus is run by very intelligent people who do not put up with poor performance.
So this stike will probably last a short time (time enough to get the unsold inventory down) and will allow the union to save face by saying "We tried". But we will have to go back to work before too long or we will simply not have jobs to go back to.
The people who run Cerberus obviously have a plan - and a back-up plan.
Gotta get off the PC now and "work" around the house and on the vehicles. I believe it is best even if not "working" to still maintain a "work" schedule...
The truth is, a simply majority can force one.
The workers don't choose to strike or not - Union leaders do.
27 posted on 10/10/2007 9:00:46 AM PDT by green iguana
It was my understanding that union leadership could call a vote, but a rank and file vote had to be taken to approve of a strike. Then the management took over.
Is that not correct?
Someone reading this: Please found a non-union car company and run the unionized ones out of business.
More than likely Chrysler will have its vehicles “contract built” by companies like Magna, who already builds Chryslers in Europe for that market
I wonder if it would be easier to found a competing Union, or a inside UAW movement to de-cert.
Does anybody know how much inventory Chrysler has?
What kind of morons run the UAW?
I detest anti-trust laws to an extreme. Government should not participate in commerce. Period. That means no protectionism, no governing of products sold, nada.
This is great, less crappy Dodge cars will be made.
Cerberus is rethinking the Chery plan, especially after the Brilliance disaster.
You DO know it was Mercedes’ idea to import Chery-produced cars and not Cerberus’, right?
Chrysler has left over ***2005*** models sitting unsold on storage lots. The UAW doesn’t have a clue.
At least 3-6 months of most models, according to reports. Less of their more popular ones, of course - but there are still unsold 2005’s sitting in storage lots.
USAToday reported in November of *last year* that Chrysler had in excess of 50,000 cars sitting on storage lots, most of which were 2006 models in the 2007 model year. Reports have the situation only getting worse. Chrysler has the most unsold inventory of any US seller.
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