For the first time in 33 years, it appears that United Auto Workers rank-and-file with Chrysler have defied leadership’s recommendation and rejected a tentative contract with the automaker.
Large majorities of workers voting against the deal at Toledo Assembly and Sterling Heights Assembly on Tuesday seem to have mathematically sealed the deal’s fate; at least seven large local UAW chapters representing between 1,000 and 6,000 hourly workers have had majorities vote against the contract. Only a handful of locals are known to have had more than 50 percent of workers support the deal.
The rejection is nearly unprecedented in today’s modern automotive industry, outside of a special situation in 2009 when Ford Motor Co. workers overwhelming voted against a deal during mid-contract bargaining following the bankruptcies of Chrysler (now known as FCA US) and General Motors.
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