More job cuts for Chrysler, white collars beware

Chrysler's deadline to hammer out a new contract with the UAW expires tomorrow. If common ground cannot be found by tomorrow morning at 11AM EST, the UAW could strike again. As if that weren't heavy enough news for the newly rebranded Chrysler LLC, it's being reported today that more job cuts are on the way for some 1,600 non-union workers. Though Chrysler's turnaround plan called for shedding 13,000 jobs by 2009, of which 2,000 were non-union, salaried white collar positions, the automaker is reportedly planning to lose an additional 500 salaried positions and 1,100 contracted jobs.
Though Chrysler did not comment to The Detroit News about the job cuts, one has to wonder whether or not these new non-union job cuts are being used as a bargaining tool to show the UAW that it's not just union members who are being asked to sacrifice for the greater good.

Sources from inside those contract negotiations are signaling that a strike may be likely as Chrysler is not in a position to offer the UAW an agreement similar to its tentative one with GM. For one, Chrysler's new owner, Cerberus Capital Management, is reportedly unwilling to offer the same level of job security by promising future products to U.S. plants like GM did. Chrysler also wants health care concessions it wasn't offered back in 2005 when similar concessions were given to both GM and Ford.

[Source: The Detroit News]