AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Oct. 9 — If workers at Chrysler factories across the country walk off the job on Wednesday morning, they will feel the strike’s effects much sooner than the automaker will.þþChrysler has at least three months’ worth of most vehicles in stock and has shut half of its United States assembly plants this week to let those inventories thin out. Its most important new vehicles, a pair of minivans and the Jeep Wrangler, would keep rolling off assembly lines, because the Wrangler factory in Ohio has a separate labor contract and one of the two minivan factories is in Canada.þþThe striking workers would have to get by on $200 a week in strike pay from the United Automobile Workers union, a small fraction of their usual wages. þþ“Chrysler’s got plenty of inventory,” said the automotive analyst John A. Casesa, managing partner of Casesa Strategic Advisers in New York. “Any work stoppage short of a couple of weeks will have no lasting effect on the company.” But for workers walking picket lines, he said, “every hour seems like an eternity.”þþNegotiators held talks into the evening at Chrysler’s headquarters here. One person with direct knowledge of the talks described the tone as “ugly,” with progress coming slowly. The two sides have deadlocked over the union’s demand that Chrysler guarantee jobs and investments, as G.M. agreed to do in its new contract. Chrysler officials are said to be seeking more flexibility in determining where vehicles are built.þþWednesday’s strike deadline, at 11 a.m. Eastern time, comes on the same day that voting on the union’s tentative agreement with General Motors is scheduled to finish. As of Tuesday, most G.M. union locals had approved the deal, reached Sept. 26 after a two-day strike. þþIn past years, negotiations with the other two Detroit automakers usually wrapped up quickly after the first deal was reached. Chrysler workers were surprised not only that the U.A.W. chose their company to go second, rather than the Ford Motor Company as many analysts had predicted, but also that the union threatened to strike after only one weekend of talks. þþ“We’re a little on edge,” said Cindy Henry, 36, a materials handler at Chrysler’s Sterling Stamping plant north of Detroit. “We were hoping once G.M. made an agreement that everything would run smoothly.”þþChrysler workers also were unsure how their company’s new owner, the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, would react to a strike. A warning several months ago from the U.A.W.’s president, Ron Gettelfinger, that private equity firms would “strip and flip” a car company like Chrysler still rings in some workers’ ears. þþMr. Gettelfinger has since endorsed Cerberus, saying that its executives have shown they are committed to reviving Chrysler.þþ“This is a whole different ballgame now,” said Greg Boudreau, 54, an electrician at the stamping plant. “We’re not dealing with DaimlerChrysler anymore. This is an investment bank. If they’re fair-minded, we’ll certainly find out in the next couple of days.”þþThe U.A.W. has told union leaders to have all Chrysler workers walk out at 11 a.m. Wednesday, midway through the first shift, barring notice of a deal in the works.þþ“Unless we hear differently, we’re going out at 11,” said Ron Vance, financial secretary of U.A.W. Local 122 in Twinsburg, Ohio, where Chrysler operates a stamping plant.þþChristopher Lambert, who works in the stamping plant’s press room, said he saw the deadline as more than just a union bargaining tactic aimed at drawing the talks to a quick resolution.þþ“It’s a very real possibility,” he said of a strike. “They already proved it wasn’t an empty threat with G.M.”þþMr. Lambert, 36, who has worked at three Chrysler plants in his nine years with the carmaker, said he had started saving money this year, in anticipation of tough negotiations.þþ“We might be out for a while,” he said, but added, “I can’t see Cerberus buying us out and then closing the doors.”þþThen again, there could be no strike at all. þþMr. Casesa, the analyst, said: “The G.M. agreement was a genuine breakthrough because it sent a clear signal that the union and the industry are willing to compromise — that this would not be a battle to the death.”þþAs workers awaited a new contract, they learned Tuesday that Chrysler planned to cut as many as 1,500 salaried and contract positions. The cuts, first reported by The Detroit Free Press, would be in addition to 2,000 salaried positions being eliminated as part of Chrysler’s revamping plan, announced in February before the sale to Cerberus.þþA person with direct knowledge of the plans confirmed the figures but spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been formally announced.þþAs many as 5 percent, or 415, of the company’s 8,300 salaried jobs would be cut, as would up to 37 percent, or 1,110, of the 3,000 contractors that Chrysler uses.þþ
Source: NY Times
