克莱斯勒和CAW谈判再陷僵局
克莱斯勒公司如果想得到美国和加拿大政府的资助，就必须在限定时间内完成与菲亚特的并购协议，这也就意味着克莱斯勒需要保证其设在美国和加拿大的工人协会做出让步，并要与对该公司享有第一留置权的债权人达成一致。
From NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Speer.
Chrysler is slated to resume concession talks with the Canadian Auto Workers today. The auto maker says its future is at stake in the negotiations. Michigan radio's Tracy Samilton has details.
Both the US and Canadian governments won't give Chrysler more federal aid unless the auto maker partners with Fiat. Fiat says it won't partner with Chrysler unless its unions agree the concessions. For the Canadian Auto Workers, that would mean a large reduction in wages and benefits. Harley Shaiken is a labor expert at UC Berkeley. "The Canadian Auto Workers are truly between a rock and a hard place right now. They've made some significant cuts in the last year. They are being asked to take a 20% cut about $16 on top of that." The CAW has so far balked at Chrysler's demands. The union says if Chrysler does go bankrupt, it won't be the blame but rather the automaker's investors who are also refusing concessions. For NPR News, I'm Tracy Samilton in Ann Arbor.
An economic barometer designed to predict the direction of the economy three to six months down the road continues to head lower. There were some signs of leveling off. Business research group - the Conference Board said today its index of leading economic indicators fell 0.3% in March. Ken Goldstein is an economist of the Board, he says while the latest reading shows recession is likely to continue a bit longer, there are signs of easing. "The recession continues. The only good news here is that instead of everything being uniformly bad, and very bad. At least now, the bad news isn't quite so bad, and there's even a little bit of a mix now and then." Index uses a Market Basket of components to try to predict future direction of the US economy.
