UAW likely to OK Chrysler contract

Workers at one Chrysler plant have yet to vote on the new union contract.

DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union is so close to approving a four-year contract with Chrysler LLC that some opponents said Thursday there’s only a remote chance it could still be voted down.

About 45,000 UAW workers at Chrysler are covered by the contract, which has been called historic by industry analysts who believe it will make the company more competitive with Japanese automakers.

The tentative agreement must be ratified by a majority of voting members to go into effect.

The only local yet to vote on the pact represents small-car assembly and stamping plants in Belvidere, Ill., with about 3,300 members. Local 1268 will vote today and Saturday, but only a huge turnout and an overwhelming “no” vote would be enough to sink the contract, according to dissidents.

Shawn Fain, a local bargaining committee member at a Kokomo, Ind., casting plant who has opposed the deal, said he didn’t know the full vote totals, but an overwhelming “yes” vote in suburban Detroit on Wednesday probably was enough to ratify the deal.

“After what happened yesterday, I think that pretty much put it to a finish,” Fain said Thursday.

As recently as Tuesday the pact was losing after large locals in Kokomo voted it down, but workers at assembly and stamping plants in Sterling Heights and Warren had a strong turnout and voted largely in favor. The Sterling Heights and Warren votes pushed the favorable vote ahead, according to a person who was briefed on a running ballot count.

The person, who did not want to be identified because the voting has not ended, said more than 55 percent of the 25,000 UAW members who voted were in favor of the pact after Wednesday night.

Based on that running tally, for the contract to be sunk in Belvidere, the person said it would take something like 3,000 “no” votes with zero “yes” votes out of the 3,300 members.

Belvidere’s local president, Tom Littlejohn, has spoken against the deal, which was reached Oct. 10 after a six-hour strike. He has not returned repeated phone messages left this week by The Associated Press.

On Wednesday, the four locals in Sterling Heights and Warren representing more than 8,600 workers voted to approve the deal.

Workers at Local 1700 approved the contract by just over 65 percent, President Bill Parker said, despite Parker’s opposition. Parker didn’t say how many workers had voted. Local 1700 represents 2,500 workers who make the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger midsize cars at the Sterling Heights assembly plant.