UAW sets strike deadline

DETROIT - The United Auto Workers union has set a tomorrow morning deadline to reach a new contract with Chrysler LLC and threatened to strike if a deal for almost 49,000 employees is not reached by then.

The union gave Chrysler a strike deadline of 11 a.m., a spokeswoman for the number three US automaker said. That notice came after a weekend of negotiations between the union and the newly private automaker, which is controlled by Cerberus Capital Management LLC.

The impact of an immediate strike against Chrysler would be muted by a series of plant shutdowns that the struggling automaker has already undertaken to run down unsold inventory in the face of slack sales.

Five of Chrysler's nine assembly plants with UAW-represented workers were idled this week. Another in Sterling Heights, Mich., was scheduled to be shut down next week, people familiar with those plans said.

Even so, UAW local leaders said they were ready to send workers out on picket lines if the union calls a strike, as it did last month against General Motors Corp.

"We are right on time with everything, and we are ready to go," UAW Local 1268 president Tom Littlejohn told Reuters. "All we have to do is pull the trigger."

Local 1268 represents some 3,600 Chrysler workers at a plant in Belvidere, Ill., that the automaker has held up as an example of its shift to a more flexible and lower-cost manufacturing strategy.

"We have no comment on negotiations at this time," a UAW spokesman said in an e-mail.

Talks between Chrysler and the UAW resumed yesterday at the automaker's headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich., after high-level negotiations intensified over the weekend, a person familiar with the talks said.

Negotiations between the two sides had been at a standstill for three weeks after the UAW agreed to extend Chrysler's four-year contract to focus on larger rival GM.

Of about 180,000 UAW-represented workers at the three Detroit-based automakers, Chrysler has the smallest workforce - roughly 49,000, compared with over 73,000 at GM and 58,000 at Ford Motor Co.

By shifting to Chrysler as his next target, UAW president Ron Gettelfinger is betting the union will be able to find common ground with Chrysler's new private equity owner at a time when sales have sputtered.