By Leftlane Staff
Friday, Sep 8th, 2006 @ 2:26 pm

Daimler Chrysler and the UAW were unable to reach an agreement on cutting health care costs as talks broke down today, the automaker has announced. Chrysler originally hoped to strike a deal with the union that would give it similar health care cuts as GM and Ford . “We were advised by the UAW that based on its financial analysis, it did not believe its members would ratify an agreement that achieved economic parity with deals reached at General Motors and Ford,” Chrysler said in a statement to the press. “The company was prepared to accept a proposal that did not reach full economic parity, however, the UAW was not willing to move forward with that proposal.” Chrysler says it spends $2.3 billion a year on health care. “In this era of global competitiveness, health care relief is as important to DaimlerChrysler as it is to Ford and GM,” the company said. Chrysler says the labor cost disadvantage to automakers in the U.S. is $1,000 per vehicle. “Sooner or later, we — including the UAW — are going to have to deal with this greater issue.”

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