After months of intense negotiations, European automaker Fiat buys the United Automobile Workers remaining 41.46 percent stake in Chrysler for $4.35 billion.
This merger was designed to satiate the union, which was planning to take its shares public in order to set a numerical value on their piece of the company.
The United Automobile Workers had been concerned with the future of their employee retirement trust, VEBA, and the actual real world value of the stock owned by VEBA.
The UAW took the issue to court only to have the judge balk short of setting a price.
The billion dollar agreement brokered between Fiat and the UAW prohibits the trust from taking further legal action.
While there has been no news yet, as to whether or not Fiat has any plans to change current product lines, the CEO of Fiat/Chrysler Sergio Marchionne has announced his plan for world domination following the new buyout ( via New York Times):
"The unified ownership structure will now allow us to fully execute our vision of creating a global automaker that is truly unique in terms of mix of experience, perspective and know-how, a solid and open organization that will ensure all employees a challenging and rewarding environment."
The Italian-based automaker was able to buy up its initial stake in the Detroit-built company when it first filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in 2009.
Fiat is thought to finalize the deal that will pass complete ownership of Chrysler on Jan 20.
What do you think? Is it awesome that the workers have their retirement secure? Or is this just one more example of union ruining America?
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