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Fiat Chrysler agrees to plead guilty, pay $30M in UAW probe

DETROIT  — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles US has agreed to plead guilty and pay a $30 million fine for a corruption scandal at the union that represents its factory workers, authorities said Wednesday. Company representatives gave more than $3.5 million in cash and other things of value to senior officials at the United Auto Workers, federal prosecutors in Detroit said as they charged FCA with conspiracy from 2009 to 2016. Details of the payoffs have been public for a few years and acknowledged during guilty pleas by FCA employees and others. FCA spokeswoman Shawn Morgan confirmed the company's planned guilty plea and fine. Al Iacobelli was the head of labor relations at Fiat Chrysler and co-chairman of the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center in Detroit. The government said he signed off on $262,000 to wipe out a mortgage held by UAW vice president General Holiefield, who was the center's other co-chairman. Iacobelli also approved $25,000 from the training center for a party for union vice president Norwood Jewell and the UAW's international executive board, the criminal charge states. Training center credit cards paid for more than $30,000 in meals for UAW officials at various restaurants in Southern California, the government said. “They did that with the hope that the company itself could possibly get more favorable treatment from the unionÂ’s leaders” during labor negotiations, U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said Wednesday. Indeed, an indictment returned in 2017 said Iacobelli and others set up a liberal policy for credit cards to keep union officials “fat, dumb and happy." Iacobelli was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison in 2018, but the sentence was recently reduced by 18 months due to his cooperation. Holiefield died in 2015; his wife pleaded guilty to a tax crime three years later. The governmentÂ’s investigation began at the training center but stretched to other corrupt acts at the UAW. Eleven officials have been convicted, including two former union presidents. Investigators found that union dues were used to pay for golf, booze and vacation villas in California. The UAW recently agreed to have an independent monitor watch union finances and operations. Fiat Chrysler US is a subsidiary of Stellantis, a company created by the merger of Fiat Chrysler and PSA Peugeot.

2014 Ram ProMaster configurator reporting for heavy duty

Ram has brought the configurator online for all sizes of its new ProMaster van, known to the rest of the world as the Fiat Ducato. Destined to take on the new Ford Transit and Nissan NV, the ProMaster is available in three sizes - 1500, 2500, and 3500.
Once a size has been chosen, the world is your oyster. We could (probably) spend the rest of our day with this configurator and not repeat a build once. Each truck can be had in different styles ranging from windowed van to cargo hauler to cutaway truck, while buyers can also choose from a number of wheelbases and roof heights.
Add to that an options sheet that's almost Porsche-like in length, and you get a van that can be completely customized to the needs of your business. Check out all three configurators at the following links: 1500, 2500 and 3500.

European car sales up 8% in February

Three weeks ago an analyst increased projections for European car sales this year, expecting them to climb three percent compared to last year instead of 2.7 percent. That number is a postive sign after years of hard times but it turns out February was especially good, overall European sales climbing eight percent on a wave of southern European recovery and discounts - and this comes after five months of gains including January's 7.2-percent jump over the year before.
The only country of Europe's five largest markets to post a decline was France, just as it did in January, Germany, the UK and Italy posting solid double-digit numbers, Spain rocking the charts with an 18-percent increase because of a government program to encourage trade-ins.
The only brand to miss the wave was Volkswagen, dropping 0.8 percent as it watched the double-digit growth at sister brands Audi, Seat and Skoda lift the Volkswagen Group sales up by seven-percent. Peugeot overcame flat sales at Citroën to improve the group by 3.5 percent, BMW and the Mercedes-Benz/Smart combo rose by four percent, the Fiat group jumped 5.8 percent, Ford was up 11 percent, the Renault Group 11.5 percent, General Motors 12 percent and the Toyota clan by 14 percent.