Fate of Chrysler pact in Illinois union's hands

BELVIDERE, Ill. -- Assembly line worker Debbie Raper said she and her co-workers at the Chrysler LLC plant here have taken seriously their roles as the final members of the United Auto Workers in the nation to vote on a four-year contract with the company.

"Our plant has just been abuzz all week," she said Friday, about seven hours after voting began. "I flip-flopped two or three days in a row here. I was a yes, a no, a yes, a no."

It would take an overwhelming turnout and "no" vote by the about 3,300 members of Local 1268 -- the only local that hadn't completed voting -- for the contract to fail, according to some of the people opposed to the agreement.

Voting began at 6:30 a.m. in a gymnasium in a community center a few miles from the UAW Hall and the assembly plant, where two models made in Belvidere -- a Jeep Compass and Jeep Patriot -- are perched on a pile of rocks for motorists passing by on nearby Interstate 90 to see.

Voting was scheduled to end at 6:30 a.m. today.

Informational meetings went on at the center throughout the day, and Raper, 52, of Roscoe, emerged pleased with some of what she heard about retirement benefits for longtime employees.

Raper started working at Chrysler in 1978 and hopes to retire soon, but worries about what the contract will mean for new hires.

"I'm hoping in four years the economy will be better, and things will get better for the next generation," she said, adding she still wasn't sure how she would end up voting.

Like Raper, most of the union members who talked to a reporter said they were particularly concerned about a provision in the contract that could result in a lower-tier wage scale for newly hired "noncore" employees who do not build vehicles or manufacture parts.

"I just don't like the idea ... that a guy working next to me may have to settle for a less wage," said Jeffery Cole, 48, of Rockford, who has worked 13 years for Chrysler, the last two in Belvidere as a quality inspector.

Cole, who voted "no," said his primary concern was that wage increases in the contract would not even keep pace with the rate of inflation.

Arne Brostuen, 54, who has worked at the plant for more than 12 years, would not say how he voted. But the Beloit, Wis., resident said he, too, was concerned about the two-tier wage scale, wondering what it might do to all workers' pensions.

"If there's nobody paying into it, it's going to run dry," he said. "Somebody's got to pay into the pension to have a pension."

Local 1268 represents employees at a stamping plant and assembly plant in Belvidere that makes the Dodge Caliber in addition to the Jeep Compass and Jeep Patriot.

As recently as Tuesday the pact was losing after large locals in Kokomo, Ind., voted it down, but workers at four Michigan assembly and stamping plants in Sterling Heights and Warren had a strong turnout on Wednesday and voted largely in favor. The Sterling Heights and Warren votes pushed the favorable vote ahead, according to a person who was briefed on a running ballot count.

The person, who did not want to be identified because the voting has not ended, said more than 55 percent of the 25,000 UAW members who had voted were in favor of the pact after Wednesday night.

Based on that running tally, it would take something like 3,000 "no" votes with zero "yes" votes for the contract to be sunk in Belvidere.

Belvidere's local president, Tom Littlejohn, has spoken out against the deal, which was reached Oct. 10 after a six-hour strike.

About 45,000 UAW workers at Chrysler are covered by the four-year contract, which has been called historic by industry analysts who believe it will make the company more competitive with Japanese automakers.