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Overnight Open Thread

268
3 wood4/28/2009 4:45:05 am PDT

The UAW and the government is going to own Chrysler:
UAW Said to Get 55% Chrysler Ownership, Board Seats

April 28 (Bloomberg) — The United Auto Workers union’s retiree health-care fund will own 55 percent of Chrysler LLC in exchange for cutting in half the automaker’s $10.6 billion cash obligation to the trust, people familiar with the matter said.

Under the terms of the contract, the trust would get representation on the company’s board of directors, said two people briefed on the deal, who asked not to be named because the matter is private.

The tentative agreement was approved unanimously by UAW leaders yesterday

and will be sent to union locals for ratification, one of the people said. Chrysler, operating with $4 billion in U.S. loans, faces an April 30 deadline to restructure its costs or risk losing government support.

“With employees effectively sharing the risks, this could play to the advantage of the ailing company,” said Howard Wheeldon, a senior strategist at BGC Partners LP in London. The UAW role, if confirmed, may be the only “feasible way of moving forward,” he added.

The U.S. Treasury, which still is negotiating on Chrysler’s behalf with the company’s secured lenders, has little room to give the banks more equity. Fiat SpA would get 20 percent of the company to start, with the ability to increase ownership to 35 percent by hitting performance goals. The Treasury would keep 10 percent.

This is Karl Marx’s dream, the workers and the government will own the means of production. And the government will use out taxes to make sure that the unions keep getting their pay and benefits.