Much is now riding on votes set for Friday and Saturday in Belvidere, Ill., where 3,815 Chrysler hourly workers are employed at an assembly plant and a metal stamping plant. Belvidere is the last major complex where workers will be voting.
Chrysler and the UAW head to Belvidere with some key victories in their pocket after a string of earlier losses. On Wednesday, workers at four key Detroit-area UAW locals voted in favor of the tentative contract, including one local whose president had been an outspoken critic of the agreement. Those locals represented more than 8,600 workers, or roughly one out of every five who would be covered by the historic four-year pact.
Workers at Local 1700 approved the contract by just over 65 percent, President Bill Parker said, despite Parker's vocal opposition. Parker didn't say how many workers had voted. Local 1700 represents 2,500 workers who make the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger midsize cars at the Sterling Heights assembly plant.
Margins of victory were higher at the other three Detroit-area locals. Workers at Local 869, which represents just under 1,500 employees at the Warren stamping plant, voted 75 percent in favor, said Da Juan Tolbert, the local's recording secretary. Seventy-eight percent approved the tentative agreement at Local 140, which represents 2,600 workers at the Warren Truck Assembly plant, President Melvin Thompson said. And 82 percent of production workers at Local 1264 approved the agreement, President Bob Struglin said. Local 1264 represents 2,000 workers at a Sterling Heights metal stamping plant.
The votes were good news for UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, who has faced challenges from some members opposed to the deal. The tentative agreement must be ratified by a majority of members to go into effect.
Chief among those challengers was Parker, a local president who also served as chairman of the union's national negotiating committee in the Chrysler talks.
Parker opposed the contract because it lowers wages for many new hires to around $14 per hour. Chrysler assembly workers now make about $28.75 per hour, according to the company. Parker also said the contract makes fewer guarantees for new products than General Motors Corp. promised workers in its contract.
