Strike may be imminent at Chrysler plants

FCA workers haven’t gone on strike since 2007, when workers walked off the job for seven hours during contract negotiations. Automotive News estimates a slowdown could cost the company $1 billion in lost revenue per week.

As The Detroit Free Press reports, however, a notice does not necessarily mean that the union is headed toward a national strike or a strike at all.

In UAW update on October 5 to the membership, UAW President Dennis Williams said, “You have spoken and we heard you”.

The UAW sent official notice to FCA on Tuesday terminating its labor agreements effective at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday as the two parties struggle to hammer out a new, four-year contract.

“Strikes are very rare now in the entire economy”, said Shaiken.

The union posted a primer that answers common questions about what happens during a strike on its UAW Chrysler Talks Facebook page Wednesday morning explaining what a strike is, who is eligible for strike benefits, how much workers are paid by the union during the strike and the medical benefits that are covered.

David Craig, a worker at Fiat Chrysler’s transmission plant in Kokomo, Ind., said workers at his plant are ready to fight for a better contract. “This is going to be different”, he said.

It’s unclear, however, whether Fiat Chrysler will be willing to give anything else up.

The two sides have been negotiating a new deal for weeks and reached a contract extension last month, but that extension expires Wednesday. Normally, UAW contract events before the ratification vote feature “us versus them” tones rather than a united front.

Around 40,000 workers, mostly coming from the carmaker’s 23 factories in the Midwest, are members of the union. “A lot of people live paycheck-to-paycheck”.

He referred to the $200-per-week strike pay that UAW members will receive, which they do not earn until the strike goes into its second week.

If the union decides to strike, it would be the fist strike targeting a Detroit automaker in eight years. A 2009 agreement, as part of the US government’s industry bailout, prohibited the UAW from striking against the automakers until this year.

“It’s a game of chicken to see who lasts longer”, said Dziczek.

Overseas automakers such at Toyota, Honda and Nissan pay the workers at their nonunion USA plants less than the veteran workers at UAW plants earn.