Trouble for UAW-Chrysler deal

[Slowrider5]

DETROIT (AP) -- Workers at three more United Auto Workers locals have rejected a tentative contract agreement between the union and Chrysler LLC, casting doubt on whether the deal will be ratified.

Members at locals in Missouri, Ohio and Delaware voted against the deal Friday and Saturday even as union leaders from Detroit spent the later part of the week lobbying for yes votes.

The contract failed Saturday at Local 110 in Fenton, Mo., one of Chrysler's largest, with 2,781 hourly workers at the South Assembly Plant. The vote was surprising because the plant makes Chrysler Town and Country and Dodge Caravan minivans, which are brand new for 2008 and expected to be top sellers, providing job security for several years.

A recording at the Local 110 union hall said Saturday that 66 percent of skilled trades workers voted against the contract, while 79 percent of non-skilled workers opposed it. It didn't give the number of workers that voted.

Although final totals from the 45,000 workers voting on the pact won't be made known until next week, the size and locations of the locals voting no are not good signs for leaders in Detroit, said Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley who specializes in labor issues.

"The early results are abysmal," Shaiken said. "Members have sent a message of considerable unrest."

More at link:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/20/news...s.ap/index.htm

[Havasavana]

The WSJ is reporting the the proposed contract has been rejected at the Jefferson North Jeep plant in Detroit.

[drew770]

Now what?
Another strike?
or
Back to the bargining table?