New Contract Protects Wages,
Provides Four Lump Sums
Settlement Bonus
Chrysler salaried bargaining unit workers on the active roll on the effective date of the agreement will receive an up-front payment of $3,000. This settlement bonus will be paid in the second pay period following official notification of the agreement’s ratification.
Projected Total Gains
Total economic gains from the proposed agreement add up to $12,872 for a Grade 8 Chrysler employee at the top of progression over the life of the agreement. That figure includes the $3,000 settlement bonus, special adjustment, and performance bonus lump-sum payments in the second, third and fourth years.
Special Adjustment and 3 Performance Bonuses
Under the proposed agreement, UAW Chrysler salaried workers will receive an immediate increase in base weekly salary of 0.49 percent. This adjustment corresponds to the tool allowance adjustment received by UAW Chrysler hourly skilled trades workers. In October of the second year, salaried employees with seniority as of September 15, 2008 will receive a lump sum performance bonus equal to 3 percent of qualified earnings over the preceding 26 bi-weekly pay periods.
In October of the third year, salaried employees with seniority as of September 21, 2009 will receive a lump-sum performance bonus equal to 4 percent of qualified earnings. In October of the fourth year, salaried employees with seniority as of September 20, 2010 will receive a lump-sum performance bonus equal to 3 percent of qualified earnings. Qualified earnings include base wages, cost-of-living adjustments, overtime, shift premiums, vacation, holiday and other paid time off and lump-sum merit awards.
Cost of Living Allowance
The proposed agreement maintains the existing COLA formula, based on the CPI-W for all items less medical care. $47.60 of the current $90 COLA float will be folded into base wage rates as of the effective date of the agreement. The remaining $42.40 will be the initial COLA float.
To defray the cost of health care benefits for active workers, and to fund the new VEBA that will secure lifetime health benefits for current and future retirees, the proposed agreement calls for the diversion of $0.10 per quarter in COLA adjustments over the term of the agreement, with $.02 of that amount to continue permanently. If a quarterly COLA adjustment is less than $.10, the company will not have the right to make up the difference in future quarters. The $0.10 per quarter diversion translates into $4.00 per week.
Additional COLA diversions adding up to a cumulative $1.01 ($40.40 per week) will also help fund the new VEBA for current and future retirees.
Merit Increases
For 2008, the company will provide a guaranteed 2 percent merit funding budget based on the base salary payroll of those employees in merit range of the salary structure. For the remainder of the proposed agreement the company agrees to provide merit funding in accordance with past practices.
Profit Sharing
The profit-sharing formula will continue unchanged. In conjunction with the discussions on the new VEBA, the impact of savings in retiree health care expense will be excluded from the calculation of profits for profit-sharing purposes over the term of the agreement. New language ensures that Cerberus cannot use management and advisory fees or transactions with other companies it owns to reduce the profits shared with UAW-Chrysler workers.
Automatic Progression For Grades 1 though 9 Retained
Employees in Grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 will continue to have automatic progression to the maximum of the salary grade. Six-month progression increases will be 2 percent.
Wage Rollback Defeated
Chrysler entered these negotiations demanding to take back your September 2006 Annual Improvement Factor (AIF) wage increase and 17 cents of COLA, amounts that GM and Ford workers are paying to help fund retiree health care obligations under their 2005 agreements. The impact of this demand would have been to cut the wages of Chrysler workers immediately by $1.01 per hour.
Your bargaining team successfully resisted the company’s demand to cut your pay. Instead, this $1.01 will come out of future COLA diversions that will be used to secure health care for current and future UAW Chrysler retirees.
Under this approach, Chrysler workers will continue to earn more than workers under the recently ratified GM agreement until the full $1.01 is offset. As a result, based on projected rates of inflation, earnings for a typical UAW Chrysler member working 10 percent overtime will be an estimated $6,700 higher than his/her counterpart at GM over the four years of the proposed agreement.
KBE RESOLVED
Design work protected for salaried workers
During the 2007 National Negotiations, the Parties discussed at length the impact of KBE on future design work. While the Company and Union have not developed a comprehensive plan to address all of the issues relative to KBE, the following has been agreed to:
• Following a complete assessment of the designer workforce, the Joint Task Force will identify appropriate training programs to ensure that SBU Designers have the skill sets required to excel in their job assignments including exposure to KBE.
• SBU Designers will perform BIW design work that continues to be performed in a traditional manner and that was traditionally assigned to the bargaining units.
• No further redeployments; however, this does not preclude other company actions necessary to manage workforce.
• The company, where practical, will in-source SBU design work in order to avoid the need for any other actions.
• All SBU Designers will participate in job related elements of KBE tools including SOP's, tool development, and tool application through the implementation of V.5 CATIA. Deployment of KBE tools will be governed by the "most efficient process" standard.
While the company and union recognize technology, business plans, business needs, and industry challenges will continue to change, the parties commit to these basic elements contained herein and will address any other opportunities as they arise in the Joint Task Force.
Finally, if the Joint Task Force is unable to resolve a challenge which confronts them, the issue will be referred to the Vice President of the UAW Chrysler Department and the Vice President of the Chrysler Employee Relations Department for resolution.