DETROIT (AP) - United Auto Workers members passed a four-year contract agreement with Chrysler LLC on Saturday despite significant dissent from some workers, the union said.
The union said 56 percent of production workers and 51 percent of skilled trades workers voted for the pact. The percentages voting in favor were much higher among clerical workers and engineers represented by the union.
The new contract covers about 45,000 active workers at Chrysler and more than 55,000 Chrysler retirees and 23,000 surviving spouses. It will expire on Sept. 14, 2011.
UAW and Chrysler bargainers reached the agreement Oct. 10 after a six-hour strike. The deal came the same day the union announced that General Motors Corp. workers had approved a similar contract.
Many workers opposed the agreement because it establishes lower wages for some noncore, non-assembly workers. The contract also doesn't make as many promises for future work at U.S. plants as a similar contract passed earlier this month by General Motors Corp. workers.
Earlier Saturday, 55 percent of workers at the last plant to vote, in Belvidere, Ill., opposed the contract, according to a person who was briefed on the vote. The person requested anonymity because the person wasn't authorized to speak on vote totals.
'Our members had to face some tough choices, and we had a solid, democratic debate about this contract,' UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said in a statement. 'Now we're going to come together as a union -- and now it's on the company to move ahead, increase their market share and continue to build great cars and trucks here in the U.S.'
Chrysler didn't immediately comment on the vote Saturday.
The union now turns to Ford Motor Co., the last automaker to negotiate in this year's round of contract talks. Talks with Ford were expected to proceed throughout the weekend.
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