Chrysler Workers Strike and Quickly Settle

Chrysler Workers Strike and Quickly Settle

Thousands of Chrysler’s hourly workers walked off the job Wednesday as the automaker and the United Auto Workers Union failed to reach an agreement on a new four-year contract before the 11 a.m. strike deadline. But the strike was short-lived when the union announced by late afternoon that a tentative contract had been reached.

The strike comes as no surprise. The odds of a strike increased significantly when the union gave the automaker a 72-hour notice of a strike deadline over the weekend. Further, the UAW, setting a precedent for these talks, struck General Motors in September for two days before reaching an agreement that it has now been ratified by the rank and file.

Details of the tentative pact have not been released, except that Chrysler confirmed the deal does include a union-run, health-care fund.

In terms of union job security, Chrysler was reluctant to commit to specific products for its various plants, as GM did. The automaker’s new owners and new management, which also includes former Toyota honcho Jim Press, who also meets with the media in Las Vegas this afternoon, is still making future product decisions, including pruning some model lines.

Chrysler also has an overabundance of inventory of unsold vehicles, which made it less painful for the automaker to take a strike.

The strike was expected to be short -- but not this short.

This was 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.

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.