Word: uaw
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...though, Chrysler is in the red (it lost $2 billion in the first quarter alone) and will soon be on its own, and the UAW's four-year contracts with the D3 expire in September. All eyes in Detroit are on how much Cerberus--a 15-year-old firm with a reputation for cost cutting--will be able to squeeze out of the UAW...
...medical expenses when they retire. Faced in recent years with stagnant sales and rising health-care costs, the automakers have been ratcheting down those benefits (mainly by requiring co-pays and contributions) for retirees without union contracts. Then, in 2005, General Motors and Ford persuaded the United Auto Workers (UAW) to break open an existing contract to cut health benefits for both current and retired workers. Chrysler couldn't get a similar break because at the time it appeared healthier than its Detroit brethren; plus it belonged to a big German company whose other businesses (Mercedes-Benz and Freightliner) were...
...Detroit Three, though, held out. When they ran into trouble in the early 1980s, the UAW gave some ground on benefits. But in the 1990s the automakers came roaring back to profitability--helped by falling gas prices (which boosted the pickup and SUV segments still dominated by Detroit), a booming stock market (which made pensions easier to finance) and a slowdown in medical-cost inflation...
Which brings us back to Chrysler, the UAW and what is shaping up to be a very hot summer of contract talks. The company's rank and file are less than thrilled about their employer's leaving the warm embrace of Germany and falling into the hands of New York financiers. "These private-equity firms are like modern-day robber barons," said a worker at the company's Warren truck plant outside Detroit. "People are feeling betrayed by the management...
...UAW chief Ron Gettelfinger opposed the Chrysler sale. But after a quick trip to DaimlerChrysler headquarters in Stuttgart, where Zetsche said he would not be dissuaded from selling and Cerberus was the best of the potential buyers, Gettelfinger offered a tepid endorsement. "It's going to happen, and we're going to make it happen in the best interest of our membership," he said...