Chrysler, CAW reach buyout deal

Package covers 2,000 autoworkers; talks with UAW continue for additional 11,000 employees.

Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News

Canadian Auto Workers secured extensive buyout packages Thursday for many of its 2,000 members who will lose their jobs at DaimlerChrysler AG due to the automaker's restructuring plan.

The company and the United Auto Workers are still negotiating buyout packages for the 11,000 Chrysler workers in the United States -- including some 3,600 in Michigan -- about to lose their jobs.

Chrysler has promised the terms of the buyouts would be "socially responsible" but would not provide details or a timetable. The UAW issued a sharply worded statement Wednesday and promised to continue to fight for workers' jobs and benefits.

"Tough negotiations lie ahead," said Harley Shaiken, labor expert at the University California-Berkeley.

Unlike the sweeping cuts under way at General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., Chrysler is not expected to offer buyouts and early retirements to its entire unionized work force. Instead, Chrysler is likely to offer retirement incentives at select assembly plants and other manufacturing locations in the U.S. where layoffs will occur.

Chrysler said it's shutting its Newark, Del., plant by 2009 and eliminating shifts at its Warren Truck Assembly plant and a factory in St. Louis. Several other plants in Metro Detroit also will lose jobs between now and 2009.

The Chrysler agreement ranges from up to $100,000 ($85,900 U.S.) payment for workers with eight years or more service; and $85,000 ($73,000 U.S.) for skilled trade workers eligible for retirement plus a $30,000 ($25,700 U.S.) voucher toward the purchase of a new Chrysler vehicle, according to the Canadian Auto Workers.

An estimated 1,600 of 2,000 Canadian workers will be offered one of the buyout packages, said CAW Local 444 president Ken Lewenza, which represents CAW workers at the Windsor Assembly Plant, where 1,300 jobs will be lost. About 5,500 people assemble Dodge and Chrysler minivans and the Pacifica crossover at Windsor Assembly.

Several Windsor Assembly workers said they would consider taking an offer.

"We all have to think about it, but, you know it's not that easy to put the brakes on your life," said Len Eng, 39, a materials handler at Windsor Assembly, who is eligible for an early retirement offer.

Jeff Smith, 45, said he wanted to see workers with less experience get buyout offers.

"I don't know what choice I would make," Smith said. "People forget this is my career, my livelihood. You can imagine how tough it is to walk away from it."

There are 11,500 Canadians who work in Chrysler assembly plants in Windsor and Brampton, Ontario; at a casting plant in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke and at Chrysler's head office operations in Windsor

CAW buyouts

Retirement-eligible production workers get up to $70,000 ($60,100 U.S). Skilled trade workers get up to $85,000 ($73,000 U.S.)

Retirement-eligible workers also get a $30,000 ($25,700 U.S.) voucher toward the purchase of a Chrysler vehicle.

Retirement-eligible workers who agree to give up all post-retirement benefits, except pension benefits, can receive an additional $40,000 ($34,300 U.S.)

For workers not eligible for retirement, offers range from $100,000 ($85,900 U.S.) for those with eight years or more seniority; $75,000 ($64,400 U.S.) for workers with five to eight years seniority; and $50,000 ($42,900 U.S.) for workers with one to five years seniority.
Source: Canadian Auto Workers