I would wager that if you asked any unsuspecting American who the owner of Chrysler is they would either reply with Fiat or say they had no idea. I myself was a victim of such a lack of knowledge. After all, I read the headlines and Fiat was clearly out front. Until recently, I had no idea of just how large a role that the UAW played in leadership at Chrysler.
Upon further research, I discovered that Fiat was an owner, but a small one at best. Fiat currently controls 20 percent of Chrysler. But if you were to read the headlines, such as this one from ABC last June “Italy’s Fiat Now Owns Most of Chrysler’s Assets”, you would assume they were the ones in charge at the Detroit based automaker.
But a little reported fact is that the United Auto Workers Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association owns 67.69 percent of Chrysler. The UAW VEBA was created as a way for the UAW to fund their members’ health care benefits. What better way to fund them than to own a failed car company. This little known fact seems to have been reported on in only a few outlets.
Surprisingly, you would never know that Chrysler is run by Big Labor. For instance, check out this advertisement from Jeep, a prominent brand of Chrysler’s, proudly declaring that the entire vehicle is American.
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