UAW Ratifies Chrysler Contract

The UAW said today that its employees had approved a four-year contract with Chrysler by the thinnest of margins, the Wall Street Journal reports. The union said 56% of production workers and 51% of skilled trade workers voted in favor of the deal, despite significant dissent among workers. The UAW will now concentrate on nailing down a deal with Ford.

The deal shifts retiree health care to a trust run by the union and allows Chrysler to hire some new workers at lower wages. The union says Chrysler will keep most US plants operating, though it made fewer promises of future work than GM did in its contract deal, the AP reports. UAW workers staged a short strike against Chrysler earlier this month before reaching tentative agreement on the contract. (More United Auto Workers stories.)