The UAW has set a strike authorization vote for this week at Chrysler. Chrysler’s 37,000 UAW members will vote Thursday to authorize their leadership to call a strike if contract talks fall apart. Membership routinely approves the action. The current contracts run out September 14.
Union leadership and workers say they’re serious about getting an hourly pay raise for the first time in several years, and dumping the two-tier structure that pays entry-level workers about half of what higher-seniority workers earn. More than 40-percent of Chrysler hourlies are tier-two workers. Strike preparation training is underway. Strike benefits are 200-dollars a week, plus insurance coverage.