A federal judge wants the heads of General Motors and Fiat Chrysler to personally settle a civil racketeering lawsuit this week. Last November, General Motors sued Fiat Chrysler, claiming the Italian-American automaker had conspired with the United Auto Workers to get favorable terms during recent contract talks. G-M officials alleged that put them at a disadvantage while negotiating their own labor deal, costing the company billions of dollars.
The U-S Justice Department is investigating Fiat Chrysler as part of an examination of corruption in the U-A-W. Fiat Chrysler counters that it did nothing wrong and accused G-M of trying to disrupt a merger Fiat has pending with French automaker Groupe P-S-A. Now, a federal judge has ordered the C-E-O’s of the two automakers…with the help of attorneys…to work out a settlement of what the court calls a – quote – “waste of time” during the current pandemic.
G-M appealed the ruling…saying the judge was abusing his power. The automaker is demanding that the case be re-assigned.