Teamsters Protest Fiat/Chrysler at Red Wings Game, Auto Show

(DETROIT) - Today, dozens of Teamsters who deliver new cars for a living handbilled outside the Chicago Blackhawks-Detroit Red Wings hockey game and outside the North American International Auto Show to ask Fiat/Chrysler not to destroy the jobs that support them and their families. View photos from the event.

Fiat/Chrysler received $14 billion in the taxpayer-funded auto bailout that was meant to help the economy and save jobs. However, they are now moving work away from the professional carhaul companies that have delivered their vehicles to dealerships for many years. These companies and their workers have already accepted major economic concessions. Some carhaul drivers have seen wage cuts up to 17.5 percent. The loss of this work could put these carriers out of business, leaving thousands in Michigan and elsewhere without jobs and health care.

Outside Joe Louis Arena and the Cobo Center, members of Teamsters Local 299 handed out leaflets to attendees that read, “Fiat/Chrysler Wants Detroit to Lose Good Jobs.” In the sky overhead an airplane circled, trailing a banner that read, “Fiat/Chrysler Wants Detroit to Lose.”

“After Fiat/Chrysler received so much taxpayer money, it is disappointing that they would outsource good Michigan carhaul jobs to low-wage contractors,” said Fred Zuckerman, Teamsters Carhaul Division Director. “In this economy, America cannot afford to lose even more good jobs with good benefits. American taxpayers, who thought Fiat/Chrysler would repay them with gratitude and loyalty instead of greed, are being betrayed.”

“Saving Chrysler was the right thing to do. But the benefits of the bailout ought to be spread more broadly and the $14 billion in bailout money used to protect middle-class jobs that pay good wages, which have all but evaporated in the recession,” said Kevin Moore, Teamsters Local 299 President.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters was founded in 1903 and represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.