Chrysler-UAW Contract Tested
February 01, 2008

Chrysler and the United Auto Workers appear to be headed for a showdown that might be the first test of the groundbreaking labor contract negotiated last fall.

Leaders of UAW Local 412 in Warren, Mich., which represents, among others, about 100 salaried designers being laid off indefinitely by Chrysler, say the automaker is violating the new contract.

“It looks like we are at war with the company. They're doing everything wrong here,” Jeff Hagler, Local 412 president, told the Detroit Free Press.

The union says the automaker is laying off salaried, unionized designers while retaining non-union contract workers to do their jobs. Union leaders further charge the company is also hiring foreigners under the immigration rules that allow companies to hire skilled foreigners for jobs that can’t be filled with local workers.

“The company seems to be doing whatever they want to do and it is a slap in the face of the union. And we're going to be doing what we've got to do to take them on over it,” Hagler told the Detroit newspaper.

Chrysler disagreed, saying it is behaving in accordance with the UAW agreement. The automaker says the layoffs are volume-related and part of the November announcement to eliminate as many as 12,000 jobs on top of a February 2007 plan to cut 13,000 positions over three years. The union claims the job changes are not volume-related, but that the automaker sees using non-union contractors and foreign workers as cheaper.

The union claims Chrysler has more than 150 contractors on board at an estimated cost of $150,000 each annually, and 30 to 100 foreign “H1B” workers.

The union says it is in the process of filing a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.

Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:51 AM under Chrysler , News | Comments (0) | digg this | Seed Newsvine