Chrysler LLC is offering another round of buyouts and early retirement packages to hourly workers in an effort to replace them with new employees that will work for cheaper. According to a union official, the packages were announced on Friday to selected UAW officials since the company has not announced the plan publicly.

A new contract reached last year will allow Chrysler to pay replacement workers $14 per hour along with less-costly health care and retirement packages. Currently, Chrysler production workers represented by the UAW make close to $30 per hour.

As a part of the condition for federal loan that Chrysler received from the U.S. Treasury Department, it must make efforts to bring its labor costs close to its foreign rivals’ U.S. plants.

Source: MSNBC