General Motors continues to insist that Fiat Chrysler has been guilty of bribing the American union United Auto Workers. It wants to revive the lawsuit on this. Both FCA and a former UAW president are biting off.
At the end of 2019, General Motors filed a lawsuit against competitor Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. The indictment: FCA would have put the union UAW in a situation through bribes where it created more favorable working conditions for FCA than for GM. According to GM, FCA’s goal was to create a stronger competitive position. The judge finally dismissed this charge a month ago. There would be too little evidence, no surprise at all, according to FCA. The group has denied the allegations from the start in all keys.
General Motors, however, does not give up and came according to Automotive News Monday with more concrete accusations. FCA is said to have passed on money to the UAW through irreducible foreign accounts. Former UAW executives would have taken the money and ‘someone in the top would be a paid mole of FCA’. GM is demanding that the judge reconsider the case. Fiat Chrysler bites it: “GM’s proposed amended charge is another example of how far it wants to go; unfounded allegations aimed at attacking a competitor who is more marketable.” FCA is apparently not concerned at all and calls GM’s renewed fighting spirit ‘meaningless’.
Not only FCA bites itself, because it is also quite an accusation against UAW. After all, that would have been bribed, of course a gross scandal if that were the case. The accusation is so harsh that Ron Gettelfinger, the former president of UAW, breaks the silence of his retirement. Gettelfinger was president at the time of the alleged bribery. In a letter on behalf of UAW, he states: “I may be retired, but I’m not dead yet. GM may have deep pockets, but I dare to bet my integrity against theirs at all times. I’m after 45. After 5 years of work in the auto industry and our union retired, I am proud of my honesty and integrity and do not sit quietly on the sidelines when GM attacks me willfully and unfounded. “