Customer paying $800- $1,000 for delivery are charged much more than the average delivery cost of about $120 per vehicle.
While Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne was briefing reporters on his plans for turning around the ailing automaker last week, members of the Teamsters union were protesting at the Italian embassy in Washington D.C.
Shouting “Hey, hey, ho, ho, bailout bandits got to go” and other slogans, more than 200 people protested what the union says is Chrysler’s attempt to destroy professional carhaul jobs.
Teamsters Carhaul Division Director Fred Zuckerman delivered a report to embassy staff, who told him it would be forwarded to the Italian ambassador to the United States.
“Damaged When Delivered? How Bailed-Out Auto Giants are Ripping Off American Consumers,” is said by the militant union to look at the risks to vehicles and consumers when car companies use “cut-rate and inexperienced carhaul drivers” to transport new automobiles.
“We are today at the Italian Embassy because we are standing up to the Bailout Bandits,” Zuckerman said.
“Fiat Chrysler got $14 billion in American taxpayer money and we’re here to say we won’t allow them to use that money to restructure an industry in a way that destroys American jobs, increases the danger of driving on our highways, and hurts the American Consumer,” Zuckerman charged.
The delegation also delivered a letter from Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the president of the Council of Ministers and the presidents of the Italian Senate and Chamber of Deputies.
In the letter, Hoffa claims that billions in taxpayer dollars on both sides of the Atlantic are not being used to establish a sustainable recovery at Fiat-Chrysler. Hoffa called on the Italian government to hold Fiat Chrysler and its chief executive, Sergio Marchionne, accountable for the company’s actions, which are “harming consumer interests, and destroying thousands of good paying jobs in the U.S. carhaul industry.”
“We are today at the Italian Embassy because we are standing up to the Bailout Bandits.”
Demonstrators also expressed solidarity with Fiat workers in Italy, who were striking last week in their fight against the layoffs of 12,000 workers and plant closures as the Fiat turnaround plan stalled.
At the center of the dispute is a rate cut because of invalidated contracts the were the result of both the Chrysler and GM bankruptcies.
The newly restructured companies want to save $30 per car via cost cuts from the companies that haul cars to the dealers. To help save the auto industry, teamsters have already taken cuts in pay and benefits up to 17.5%.
Customers who pay $800- $1,000 for delivery charges are paying much more than the actual delivery cost of an estimated $120 per vehicle.
Hoffa says if the automakers get the additional “steep cuts” they want, they’ll force the top three carriers out of business, and consumers won’t see any of the savings.
Allied Systems Holdings Inc. of Atlanta, Cassens Transport Co. of Edwardsville, Ill., and Jack Cooper Transport Co. in Kansas City, Mo., will go under. Five thousand carhaul drivers will lose their jobs.
Many of the carhaul drivers are Teamsters, of course, but the union claims this isn’t a union issue. This is about the “destruction of an entire industry, and what’s happening to our middle class,” the union said.
“A strong and vital middle class is a middle class that can offer a helping hand to the poor; the middle class is what gives us political stability. It’s why we work, and why we vote, and why we accept the outcome of elections, and why we can be safe when we walk down the streets,” according to the Teamsters.
The latest move by the Teamsters is an extension of a campaign that began in October, when the union launched a national campaign to fight against the “destruction” of the carhaul industry by bailed-out auto giants General Motors and Chrysler.
In the union’s view, automakers received bailouts from taxpayers earlier this year, but are now demanding “dramatic and unsustainable” cost cuts from Teamster-represented carhaul companies, threatening hundreds of good-paying, skilled, middle-class jobs.
“Taxpayers have already financed GM and Chrysler to the tune of more than $60 billion in bailout money and billions more in the Cash for Clunkers program,” said Hoffa.
“The Teamsters want to remind these automakers that their taxpayer bailouts were intended to help save American jobs. Instead, they are out to destroy an industry that pays good wages and benefits at a time when we should be protecting and creating more of these kinds of jobs in this country,” Hoffa concluded.
As part of the campaign, the Teamsters Union also has launched a web site, www.carbuyersbeware.com, to educate consumers how the bailed-out auto giants are ripping off American car buyers.