As strike looms, so do the unknowns

Workers are unsure of what to expect from Chrysler’s new owners.

DETROIT (AP) — As a strike deadline drew closer, thousands of Chrysler workers nationwide awaited word Tuesday on whether they would be spending their next work day on picket lines or assembly lines.

They also wondered whether a walkout by 49,000 members of the United Auto Workers would be long or short. And they’re a little leery of Chrysler’s new owners, the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, which may not behave like auto companies of the past.

At factories and union halls across the Detroit metro area Tuesday, workers filled out paperwork for strike pay and signed up for picket duty as the strike deadline of 11 a.m. today approached.

Negotiators continued to talk at Chrysler’s Auburn Hills headquarters, working most of Monday night and into Tuesday with only a short break.

Cerberus hired Bob Nardelli, formerly head of The Home Depot Inc., as Chrysler’s chairman and chief executive, and Jim Press, Toyota Motor Corp.’s top North American executive, as vice chairman and president in charge of sales, marketing and product strategy. Neither has had to deal with the UAW, although the company retained former Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda and made him vice chairman and president in charge of manufacturing.

Bryan Currie, a master electrician at the company’s Sterling Heights assembly plant, said workers discuss Cerberus on the factory floor because its track record during contract negotiations is unknown. Still, he said, union members have to stick together.

“We still have to look at what the issues are and go from there,” Currie said. “They’re asking for huge concessions. It’s not something that you can just lay down.”

Setting a strike deadline doesn’t necessarily mean that workers will leave their jobs. The UAW could extend its old contract hour-by-hour as it did with General Motors Corp. before going on a two-day strike last month.

The UAW ended its strike and announced a tentative agreement with GM on Sept. 26. The company’s 74,000 UAW members were voting on the pact, with totals to be released today.

The union normally settles with one U.S. automaker and then uses that deal as a pattern for an agreement with the other two Detroit-based automakers. But several industry analysts have said that Chrysler and Ford Motor Co. have different needs and therefore need different contracts.

Many industry analysts believe Cerberus will fix the money-losing Chrysler quickly, return it to profitability and sell it for a huge profit, perhaps to a foreign auto company that wants a stronger U.S. presence.

In August, Daimler transferred an 80.1 percent stake in Chrysler to the New York-based Cerberus in a $7.4 billion deal. The German automaker retained a 19.9 percent interest in Chrysler.

The bargaining appeared to center on the UAW’s granting the same health-care cost concessions to Chrysler as it did to GM and Ford in 2005, as well as how much Chrysler would pay into a company-funded, union-run trust that would take on its roughly $18 billion worth of retiree health-care costs. The union agreed to the creation of such a trust in the case of GM last month.

Also at issue are the union’s desire for job security pledges at U.S. factories and Chrysler’s wish to contract out parts transportation now done by higher-wage union members, according to a person briefed on the talks. The person requested anonymity because the talks are private.