Wages, Benefits Jump at Toledo Jeep
UAW negotiators for Jeep workers in Toledo, Ohio, won a 3 percent wage increase and substantial pension and job security gains in talks with DaimlerChrysler.
The one-year contract ratified last month positions Local 12’s Jeep workers to join with other DaimlerChrysler workers who will begin negotiations on a new national contract next summer. Jeep workers have worked under separate agreements with DaimlerChrysler.
The Jeep bargaining team, led by Region 2B Director Lloyd Mahaffey, gained a commitment from DaimlerChrysler to upgrade 40 transitional workers to full-time status and won $55 million in income protection funds. Preferential hiring language for laid-off workers was strengthened.
Profit-sharing and COLAs were maintained. The pension was improved in a number of areas, including an increase in the basic benefit rate and improved lump-sum payment for retirees. Workers who were on layoff from 1979 to 1983 will be awarded pension credits.
Negotiators were also able to maintain the HMO option without a co-pay.
The contract covers about 3,800 active workers and about 550 laid-off workers who rotate into shifts periodically. Toledo Jeep workers assemble the Wrangler and the hot-selling Liberty models.
