Road rocky to UAW-Fiat Chrysler deal
(WJBK) - United Auto Workers' employees and retirees protest in front of the UAW solidarity house on East Jefferson in Detroit. Fiat Chrysler and the UAW struck the tentative deal last week and now the members will vote to whether ratify the Contract. These workers say it's a bad deal.
"Our jobs are moving to Mexico. We want American made cars with American made people," says Monroe Archer, a UAW member.
The workers and retirees hitting the sidewalk say the current proposed contract should be rebuilt to add more incentives and benefits before it comes up for a ratification vote.
"We just want to let the union know we're not satisfied, we're not happy with the contract that was negotiated. We would like them to go back to the table and renegotiate. We think we deserve better," Archer says.
Fiat Chrysler workers are voting first. They'll be followed by Ford Motor employees and then GM. What's the scuttle at the Ford plants on how the vote may go?
"The workers over here are wearing T-shirts around that say Now Is Our Time. Well, if it's our time we deserve more than a $3,000 signing bonus and more than $1.40 an hour raise over four years. People are furious about this, and I'm not kidding - I haven't heard one person say they're going to vote for it," says Brian Pannebecker, a Ford Motor employee. The 19-year Ford Motor Co. employee who worked formerly for Chrysler says many Big 3 workers are aware of a fist fight at the Chrysler Local 1700 meeting over the weekend.
"There's a lot of people over at Chrysler that are extremely upset, and I heard that it came to pushing and shoving and punches were thrown because the workers are upset. Not just the legacy workers who are getting a very small raise after 10 years with nothing, but the two-tier people who are being told they have to wait eight years to make $3.50 less than what the legacy people are making today," Pannebecker says.
The proposed contract is for four years. The Fiat Chrysler workers vote first, followed by Ford and then GM employees.