Negotiators for the United Auto Workers and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles are working to avoid a strike as a deadline looms Wednesday for 40,000 workers at the automaker’s plants.
Reuters reported (via Automotive News) that talks were ongoing to move forward or present a new four-year contract to workers after hourly employees roundly rejected the last proposed deal. The Detroit Free Press reported that employees voiced displeasure with the “alternative work schedules” in the contract that would keep workers on four, 10-hour shifts instead of five, 8-hour shifts, sometimes switching between late night and early morning shifts within days.
The last strike at Chrysler plants lasted for only 6.5 hours in 2007.
Hourly workers have also asked to end the two-tier pay system, which pays veteran Tier 1 workers more than newer, Tier 2 workers hired after the recession. The proposed contract didn’t offer a bridge to Tier 1 for Tier 2 workers, which comprise around 45 percent of FCA’s hourly workforce — the highest among the Big Three.
On Wednesday, the UAW posted a primer on its Facebook page for striking workers. The union advised workers that crossing a picket line would void any strike benefits and employees would be subject to discipline under the UAW Constitution.
Reuters reported that the UAW may call for a general strike at all FCA plants, or a targeted strike at select plants. Media reports estimate at general strike could cost FCA $1 billion each week.
After you guys finish building my HELLCAT 300, you can take the rest of the week off.
I’ll settle for a Hellcat Dart. :)
Chrysler deserves credit for fielding a car with such a ridiculously obnoxious name.
If it were possible to cram a couple 6.2-l supercharged engines into the DART – and mitigate the torque steer so it didn’t rip your arms off – I could create a line of takers willing to spend $80,000 for them.
LIMITED EDITION DART HELLCAT – only (insert number here) made.
I almost feel sorry for FCA. They negotiate in good faith with the UAW, come to an agreement both sides consider fair, but may still be struck because the union couldn’t sell their deal to its constituents.
But then I remember how quickly my 3 Dodges rusted, and all that good will fades like the strut mounts on a 2002 Caravan.
Don’t feel too bad for FCA. They are still counting their Jeep and RAM money. The UAW negotiators should have known better. The rank and file was never going to accept that deal.
$1 billion a week in revenue, but not expenses.
Right, but the only real expenses saved are the union labor. 40K employees times $2k/week is $80M in cost saved. Not a good bargain, vs. $1B in lost revenues.
The UAW knew this wasn’t a great deal and the fact they aren’t really trying to stop the strike suggests they’re playing their cards right. But we’ll see how this goes, I suspect there will be a short strike, a few days at most and then a new more beneficiary contract will be signed with a bridge.
The workers know the last strike lasted only 6.5 hours, about the same length as dinner and a movie. Who wouldn’t strike to get the whole enchilada? The UAW is in control and FCA is impotent. Well, impotent until production is transferred to Mexico, which is the sensible option.
Torque gun and no eye protection?
Unless this is his first warning, I’m giving him balance of the shift and three days suspension.
I know a highly skilled machinist that works at Sterling (they build the 200 and I think the Dart).
He tells me that a lot of Tier I union members are essentially drooling retards that have to be constantly baby-sat, and that a huge % of the prefab parts they receive there are imported from China and have to essentially be reworked because they are out of spec, and that it truly would be less expensive to make them ONCE in the U.S.
I meant to say the Tier II, not Tier I, employees.
200, well I do hope Chrysler made money on those given what a resale disaster that model happens to be.
Here’s the MY14 V6 Limited which I think approached 30K:
09/10/15 NORTHSTR Lease $15,100 6,309 Above WHITE 6G A Yes
09/25/15 PA Lease $15,200 8,135 Above TAN 6G P Yes
09/24/15 ARENA IL $12,400 8,566 Avg WHITE 6G A Yes
09/11/15 PA Regular $15,600 8,594 Above WHITE 6G P Yes
09/17/15 CHICAGO Lease $15,600 9,372 Above BLACK 6G A Yes
09/17/15 PHILLY $12,800 12,839 Avg SILVER 6ET P Yes
09/09/15 NY Lease $14,000 12,926 Avg BRIGHT W 6G A Yes
09/17/15 ATLANTA Regular $13,500 13,357 Avg RED 6G A Yes
09/22/15 DENVER Lease $9,700 15,933 Below BLACK 6G A No
09/08/15 ORLANDO Regular $14,000 17,647 Avg WHITE 6G A Yes
10/01/15 DETROIT Lease $12,700 20,135 Avg WHITE 6G A Yes
and the MY14 I4 LX:
09/24/15 PALM BCH Regular $10,200 7,025 Above SILVER 4G A Yes
09/24/15 PALM BCH Regular $10,500 18,838 Above SILVER 4G Yes
09/30/15 SAN ANTO Regular $11,000 20,313 Above GOLD 4G A Yes
09/17/15 FRDKBURG Regular $11,100 25,053 Above BLACK 4G A Yes
09/29/15 CHICAGO Regular $10,500 27,687 Above Silver 4CY A Yes
09/22/15 OHIO Lease $9,200 28,056 Avg SILVER 4G A Yes
09/17/15 PA Regular $9,200 31,148 Avg Black 4G A Yes
That’s the Mitsubishi-based 200, not the new FCA-developed UF 200. I doubt many of those broke $20,000 out the door.
Oh shat you are correct, my bad. here is the MY15:
MY15 Chrysler 200 FWD V6 Limited
08/04/15 DETROIT $15,600 20,738 Above WHITE 6G A No
07/14/15 GEORGIA Regular $14,000 21,162 Avg BLACK 6G A Yes
07/14/15 NEWENGLD $15,200 22,202 Above BLACK 6G A Yes
08/06/15 PHILLY $14,400 26,569 Above WHITE 6G P Yes
08/04/15 DETROIT $15,200 27,192 Above RED 6G A Yes
08/04/15 DETROIT $14,700 28,415 Above SILVER 6G A Yes
09/01/15 RIVRSIDE $12,500 28,602 Below GRANITE 6G A No
FWD I4 LX
09/14/15 ORLANDO $13,000 11 Below MAROON 4G O No
10/01/15 SO CAL Lease $14,000 1,509 Below WHITE 4G A Yes
07/22/15 PITTSBGH Regular $14,800 5,076 Above BLACK 4G A Yes
10/01/15 SO CAL Lease $14,500 8,671 Avg WHITE 4G A Yes
08/13/15 TX HOBBY Lease $14,500 15,757 Avg GRAY 4G A Yes
10/01/15 TX HOBBY Regular $10,500 20,158 Below BLACK 4G A No
Its actually similar to the Mitsu based model.
The change to the new 200 isn’t going to help residuals any. If the Fusion, which is an established legit player in the midsized game, can’t hold it’s value, the 200 won’t be able to either. It’s still a Chrysler 200.
WOW
50% depreciation in a year? Simply amazing. Export the new 200 back to Detroit.
Meanwhile, right down the street at your friendly Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Kia, VW and Subaru dealer you can buy an US-made high-quality vehicle without all this sandbox nonsense.
Both FCA and UAW both are acting like they matter. I see dead people but they don’t even know they are dead.
Drooling retards is a little harsh but not by much I suspect.
Who the hell wants to make a lifetime career of putting the same screw in the same place for 8-10 hours a day!!!!
As for the 10 hr. vs. 8 hour shift and switching start times..lets see you geeks go along with that!!
How do you arrange for childcare when your schedule will change at the Companys wish??
Oh,I forgot,the best and brightest don’t have that to be bothered with.
Some of you need to wake the hell up!
Not worry about how the market is doing and be a little understanding of what the real state of the working man(if you can fathom what that is) is going through!
Me?
I’m with you.
I love capitalism (with excesses and market failures mitigated as best as can be in a balanced fashion), yet despise CronyComradeKapitalism that we now are saddled with in the USSA, where banks, Wall Street financial engineering firms, and other fiat money changing entities are not only propped up with ZIRP fiat, but coddled to excess, and granted license to rape and pillage, at the expense of actually productive, working class men and women.
If Americans were awake and engaged, they’d have already stormed Wall Street and burned the bankers, paying special attention to extracting justice upon central banking planners at the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department, in a truly revolutionary manner.
As long as CronyComradeKapitalism keeps granting a license to the Banking-Financial-Wall Street complex to suck the blood of Main Street, we’ll continue to see a decline in the size and real wages of what once was a truly large middle class in America, as we ebb closer and closer to rich & poor, with little in between.
I’m not normally one to get into it with you but your ‘CronyComradeKapitalism’ which I assume you want to tie to Communism or socialism has zero to do with either. This is a straight forward evolution of monetarism and supply-side policies. Bailing out large banks and protecting the interests of the investment class is the core of monetarist policy and supply-side theory. What you’re saying is that you like Keynesian economic capitalism that tries to mitigate the huge gains and losses by using spending and other tools to keep the bubbles from bursting and turning the world markets into recession.
DW, you’re smart, your ideology may be misplaced at times, but I don’t doubt your intellect. I just felt like your anger is misplaced. The Fed isn’t an evil place, it’s doing what it does, monetary easing. You can use the Fed for good and bad, in this case under Yellin I would consider her doing a fairly positive job so far.
The core of the issue is that one party is completely captive to the capitalist class so it’s hard to push for change when only one party can discuss change. Pivotal politics makes this really hard because the pivot towards a better system is near impossible without huge numbers.
“As for the 10 hr. vs. 8 hour shift and switching start times..lets see you geeks go along with that!!”
Working days for me can vary from 8 hours to 16 hours, gone for days to weeks etc. The UAW guys should probably get over it if it means some form of job security. Irregular work hours are fairly common among real, actually working people.
“How do you arrange for childcare when your schedule will change at the Companys wish??”
Inconvenient, maybe. Impossible? Certainly not.
“How do you arrange for childcare when your schedule will change at the Companys wish??”
Don’t have kids or let yourself feel responsible for someone who does.
We must protect ourselves from the consequences of other people’s careless f*cking, locally and globally.
I and millions of others survived and thrived despite starting out in industrial circumstances that would make today’s UAW worker seem like royalty (perhaps a bit mindless but so was most royalty). That’s because we kept that one simple rule foremost in mind.
Life is hideously unfair but it does offer some dependable axioms.