UAW Says Won't Control Chrysler

The United Auto Workers president is seeking to distance his union from direct responsibility for the future of Chrysler LLC, noting 55% of the auto maker will be owned by a retiree health care trust fund and not the union itself.

"It's this independent trust that will own these shares," UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said...The trust--known as a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association, or VEBA--is supposed to take ownership of 55% of Chrysler as part of a government-brokered cost-cutting plan that union workers ratified earlier this week...Mr. Gettelfinger also implied in the Fox interview that the UAW would be able to act independently, even strike if necessary, despite the fact that the union would own a critical piece of the company through the VEBA trust...

"The VEBA is CONTROLLED BY THE OUTSIDE INDEPENDENT DIRECTORS who have been appointed by a judge to serve on that," he said. "We have less UAW representation on the VEBA. And as far as the board seat that the VEBA is going to get with the approval of the UAW, the voting will be done by independent directors….So, I don't see that conflict of interest issue."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124120108093077927.html

So much for "The workers will own the company". For this joke the workers lost $5.3 BILLION in health care.

Having said that, this deal was better than having the company go completely under and then what?

ROCKFORD — If ever a landslide victory could be termed “reluctant,” it was today's approval by United Auto Workers Local 1268 members of contract concessions...“There’s not a lot of other options,” said Jeremy Endress of Capron, who has worked at the Belvidere plant for 10 years. “Either this goes through and we have work, or we’re all on the unemployment line.”

Even though the UAW would be a major beneficiary if Chrysler returns to profitability, the union will have no role in the day-to-day management of the company.

“I asked that question,” Jacques Walker of Rockford said. He was working for Chrysler in Detroit when he transferred to the Belvidere plant three years ago. “We’ll have someone sitting on the board of the (group administering health benefits), but we’ll have no say in how the company is run.”

Many of the concessions were related to health care, and several hurt Chrysler’s retirees. Workers said the new contract calls for higher co-pays, less prescription coverage, and the elimination of dental and vision care for retirees as of July 1.

Steve Kitzman, who lives near Waukegan and retired from the plant after 35 years, drove in only to be told that only active members could vote. “It’s kind of disappointing to drive down here,” Kitzman said. “They did make changes to some of the programs set up for retirees, and we don’t have any say in it.”


http://www.rrstar.com/archive/x303487643/Belvidere-Chrysler-workers-vote-on-concessions

I appreciate you feel strongly about it, but is it worth multiple overlapping threads?

maybe we could have a daily dedicated thread, tracing each shutdown & layoffs in every state, loss of promised health care, retirees whose pensions get cut...& every lie told...

because i'd bet good money right now there have been more us deaths traceable to this financial crisis than pig flu.

Call me a stick-in-the-mud, but I don't really think shotgunning a topic gets more people on board.

UAW knows this and is trying to distance itself from it, but in the public's mind it will be held as gospel that the unions destroyed the company