Chrysler-United Auto Workers Contract Under Fire

The dissident group Autoworkers Caravan has filed a petition with the United Auto Workers on behalf of Chrysler Group LLC skilled-trades workers, appealing the union's decision to ratify its new contract with the automaker over their objections.

While the majority of UAW members voted in favor of the new contract during the first week of November, the majority of skilled-trades workers voted against it. Union rules require contracts to be ratified by both skilled trades and production workers, but UAW leaders meeting in closed session voted to overturn that veto and sign the agreement on October 26.

"We voted down the tentative agreement. But they used a procedural loophole to ratify it," said Alex Wassell, a member of Autoworkers Caravan who works at Chrysler's Warren Stamping Plant. "We think it's a very bad agreement and a very bad precedent, and we're going to do everything we can to overturn it."

The UAW had no comment on the petition. "We haven't received the appeal yet," said spokeswoman Michele Martin.

The document was signed by more than two hundred Chrysler skilled-trades workers.

UAW President Bob King said last week that he and other union leaders decided to throw out the skilled-trades' vote because their veto was driven by economic concerns rather than issues particularly pertaining to skilled trades, noting the majority of all UAW members who cast ballots voted in favor of ratification.

But George Windau, the worker at Chrysler's Jeep plant in Toledo who started the petition, said King and the other union leaders had decided how they were going to rule before the meeting began.

"We were not asked why we voted no," he said. "Our voices need to be honored and heard."

He asked that the new contract not be finalized until the union hears their appeal.

While the contract has yet to be signed, the UAW has officially informed Chrysler of its ratification. A source familiar with the situation said workers will not receive signing bonuses until the document is actually signed.

The UAW is still evaluating the appeal, but it likely will result in a hearing before the union's public review board, an independent body made up primarily of experts in labor law, labor relations, and ethics.

That is what Wassell is hoping for. "We want to go through a discovery phase and find out exactly how Bob King and the other leaders made that decision," he said. "We think it will show that it was just a rubber-stamp."

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