CHRYSLER PACT GOOD NEWS LOCALLY; CAPE GIRARDEAU DANA PLANT AVOIDS LAYOFFS

Rex Probus and Dave Blanchard were glad to learn Wednesday that Chrysler Corp. had reached a tentative agreement with the United Auto Workers to settle a monthlong strike at the automaker's Detroit engine plant.

"I have people waiting on their special-order trucks, and our truck inventory is about half what we'd like to see here," said Probus, general manager of Auffenberg Chrysler-Plymouth-Dodge-Jeep-Eagle, 611 S. Kingshighway.

For Blanchard, plant manager of the local Dana Corp. plant, 2075 Corporate Circle, the agreement means good news for workers at the Spicer Axle Division plant. It manufactures axle components for some Chrysler trucks.

"We've avoided layoffs during the long Chrysler strike," said Blanchard. "But there was reason for concern: We had to shut down production on some lines. To date we haven't had any layoffs."

At least two Dana Corp. plants have been forced into layoffs because of the strike. About 600 of the 2,000-member workforce as the Fort Wayne, Ind., plant were laid off, and about half of the employees at Columbia are out of work.

"The tentative agreement is good news," said Blanchard. "We hope that workers will ratify it."

Another Southeast Missouri company -- TG-USA in Perryville -- manufactures automotive parts for a number of automakers, including Chrysler.

"We're concerned, but at this point it has not affected our work here," said Glenn Graham, vice president of general affairs at the TG-USA in Perryville. The Perryville plant produces a number of auto parts for Toyota and several U.S. automakers.

The Chrysler strike has lingered since April 9 at Chrysler's Mound Road engine plant, the longest strike against the automaker in 30 years.

No details were immediately available on the tentative agreement, but Chrysler spokesmen say the agreement would probably go to the workers for ratification Friday.

The strike was largely over Chrysler's plans to farm out about 250 drive-shaft production jobs to an independent supplier -- Dana.

After the 1,800 workers went on strike, Chrysler was forced to shut down several other assembly plants and reduce production at some parts plants. In all, some 22,000 workers were idled, including the St. Louis North truck plant, which employs about 2,500 workers.

Chrysler halted U.S. and Canadian production of Dodge Ram and Dakota pickups, Jeep Grand Cherokee sport utility vehicles, Dodge Viper sports cars and full-size Dodge Ram vans because of the strike.

Dana's Cape Girardeau plant provided components parts for some of those vehicles -- Dodge Ram, Dakota and the Jeep Grand Cherokee sport utility vehicle.

Component parts from Cape Girardeau are sent to Columbia and Fort Wayne for final axle work. The local Dana plant also provides axle components for Ford Motor Co. and Izuzu Co.

Chrysler officials say it is uncertain when the idled workers could go back to work, even after the deal is ratified.

Some at Mound Road will return soon after ratification, officials say. But schedules will have to be worked out for other workers.

On Tuesday, negotiators reached agreement on the key issue -- farming out work to independent suppliers, according to reports in the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News.

The Free Press reported that under the agreement, Chrysler will assign $100 million worth of new work to the Mound Road plant while going ahead with moving drive-shaft work to Toledo, Ohio-based Dana Corp.

The UAW had opposed losing 250 drive-shaft jobs to Dana, whose work force is mostly nonunion. Chrysler has insisted no jobs would be lost because the drive-shaft workers would get new assignments at the Mound Road plant.

The Detroit News quoted UAW president Steve Yokich as saying that the situation had been compounded by Chrysler's choice of Dana.

Dana, said Yokich, "is known for closing union plants and opening scab plants all over the country. The union is still smarting from an unsuccessful drive to organize Dana workers at a Cape Girardeau plant last year."

In that vote, Dana employees voted 205-87 against the union.