Detroit workers deal another blow to FCA-UAW contract

DETROIT – Workers at a Fiat Chrysler Automobiles assembly plant in Detroit have resoundingly rejected a four-year tentative agreement between the UAW union and the automaker, further jeopardizing chances of approval nationwide.

At UAW Local 7, whose workers make the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant, 66 percent of the production workers who cast ballots voted against the contract and 77 percent of skilled trades workers voted against the deal.

The vote was the latest blow against the agreement, hammered out earlier this month by FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne and UAW President Dennis Williams. While approximately one-third of Fiat Chrysler’s workforce has yet to vote on the deal, most of the larger UAW units that have voted so far have rejected it. What’s more, the margin of defeat at several locations has been growing as the voting has worn on.

A nationwide rejection of the contract would threaten to throw the UAW’s contract talks with the Detroit Three into turmoil and would force union leaders to either try to return to the bargaining table with Fiat Chrysler, call a strike or turn its attention to negotiating an agreement with either Ford or General Motors. For the deal to become official, a majority of more than 40,000 workers from 37 UAW units would need to vote in favor of the agreement in voting that is scheduled to occur through Wednesday.