Negotiators for Chrysler Corp. and the United Auto Workers will sign their new 66,000-worker, two-year contract on Monday, the last flourish on a pact that has been in effect since May 16. UAW President Owen Bieber, UAW Vice President Marc Stepp and Chrysler Vice President Anthony St. John, along with the elected 10-member UAW bargaining committee, will sign the contract in a 4 p.m. ceremony at Chrysler's Highland Park headquarters, company and union officials said. In ratification voting May 11, the contract was approved by a slim 54 percent of those voting overall and rejected by Chrysler's 10,000 skilled trades workers. But the contract was ratified later that week by the UAW's executive board following a skilled trades council meeting in Chicago because the skilled trades objections were not based on issues that applied solely to them. The contract has been in effect since May 16, replacing a three-year pact that would have expired Sept. 14, St. John said. Like the General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. pacts on which it is based, the contract guarantees a set number of jobs at each plant, warehouse or office except in cases of cuts in production volume because of slow sales. It also requires the corporation to recall or hire one worker for every two who quit, retire or die. In turn, UAW leaders agreed to end their resistance to plant-level agreements that organize workers into teams. Chrysler has begun taking its initial snapshot of guaranteed jobs at most locations; local union officials will be given lists of workers' names for approval and discussion, St. John said. Unlike the Ford and GM pacts, the Chrysler contract also covers salaried workers including engineers, office and clerical employees and nurses. The two sides began early negotiations April 18 in an effort to ease building tensions sparked by Chrysler's consideration of a $2 billion offer to sell its 28,000-worker Acustar Inc. parts subsidiary and Chrysler's decision to close a 5,500-worker assembly plant in Kenosha, Wis. Chrysler backed down from the sale and agreed to early talks in March. Despite several disruptions that nearly prompted the UAW to break off talks, Chrysler and the union reached a tentative agreement May 4. The early settlement eliminated the chance of a strike in September, which observers said would have been very likely because of the accumulating anger among Chrysler workers. The new contract expires in 1990, making it the first Chrysler contract in a decade to expire simultaneously with the Ford and GM pacts.
