UAW Head Wants Daimler to Retain Chrysler

DaimlerChrysler AG should hold onto the struggling Chrysler Group, the United Auto Workers union president said Tuesday.

We want to keep DaimlerChrysler — we want to keep the Chrysler Group — in the family, Ron Gettelfinger said in an interview on radio station WJR-AM in Detroit.

When asked if he would prefer to have an auto-related business such as Magna International Inc. buy Chrysler rather than a private-equity fund such as the Blackstone Group and Cerberus Capital Management LP, Gettelfinger said, I’ve been around the process long enough to know that I’m not ready to concede that the Chrysler Group is going to come out of DaimlerChrysler.

He added he would prefer an auto-related business to buy Chrysler if the Auburn Hills, Mich., automaker was sold.

Gettelfinger is a member of DaimlerChrysler’s supervisory board. His union represents 49,600 Chrysler workers.