Chrysler’s Employees Threaten Strike Again - But can they afford it?

What’s the strike about?

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union that represents about 45,000 employees
at Chrysler has once again threatened to strike, this time they mean
business. The strike is set to occur at 11:00am EST today if the UAW
and Chrysler do not come to an agreement on health care issues. The
central issue: the proposed union-run retiree health care trust. The
UAW’s confidence is high after sealing a contract with GM last month that addressed the same issues.

Employees will hurt before Chrysler’s financial burden begins.

The employees at GM “are angry and they’re scared,”
in the words of Paul Thayer, a welder repairman at Chrysler’s stamping
plant. Anyone would be weary of striking if they lived in Michigan - it
ranks 51st with the worst unemployment rate in the nation at 7.4%.
Perhaps they can afford to strike for a week…but what about two
weeks…or worse, what about a month? Chrysler can use some down time
anyway, they’ve already shut down half of their plants because they have too much inventory
- they have three months worth of inventory and their number one
selling ‘Jeep Wrangler’ is assembled at a non-UAW plant in Ohio.

Michigan: The Worst state for a strike

The UAW will pay striking employees $200 per week. I can’t speak for
every employee…but a lot of people I know have ZERO saved up for a
rainy day. If the UAW forces its workers to strike for a long time - we
can expect to see some of those workers go back to work…being a ‘scab‘ is better than being broke and homeless. Michigan’s economy is in horrible shape. It was the only state whose GDP actually fell, its poverty level is higher than the national average, its the worst state for foreclosures, and the list goes on.