By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – A federal mediator had rewritten the proposal after the machinists rejected an offer by the St. Louis Auto Dealers Association Oct. 8.
Under the proposal, the union will get some pension and salary increases but the dealers will maintain their ability to hire less skilled workers for lower pay.
Machinists' union representative Tony Rippeto believes some layoffs are inevitable:
"Everybody's going to be notified whether they go to work on Monday or whether they're on layoff status," Rippeto said. "It'll be on a store by store basis. A lot of stores are already from what I understand calling work in that's been sitting on the outside waiting for them because they're waiting for our guys to get back to work.
The dealers will meet Friday morning to decide whether to ratify the proposal.
The strike affected 60 dealerships in Missouri and one in Illinois.