Business Notes

Chrysler Corp.'s bland announcement last week that it was dropping five of its 18 directors in order to "improve efficiency and effectiveness as well as reduce cost" didn't fool industry observers. The unusual pedigree of one of those directors -- Owen Bieber, president of the United Auto Workers union -- signaled other, less technocratic motives. Most bets are that the willful U.A.W. boss, a board member since 1984, was dropped because of his frequent opposition to management, led by its equally willful chairman, Lee Iacocca. "There were a lot of 17-to-1 votes," Bieber said last week.

There was also more than a little friction. Bieber had routinely voted against raises for top executives. In 1989 Chrysler management enraged the union boss by concealing from him plans to close a Detroit plant.

Bieber's removal from the board, effective in May, marks the end of an experiment in union-management cooperation, which began with the appointment of the U.A.W.'s then president, Douglas Fraser, during Chrysler's dark days of 1980. Chrysler's board shuffle also sparked talk that the troubled company was streamlining itself for a merger with a foreign car company. Possible suitors: Honda, Fiat and Mitsubishi. Whatever Iacocca decides to do, he will have one less dissenting vote to worry about.