MARKET FORCES
Link: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071102/BUSINESS01/711020322
Workers understand but dislike decision
Chrysler's falling sales lead it to drop shifts at 5 factories
November 2, 2007
BY JEWEL GOPWANI
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Workers at Chrysler knew cuts were coming. It was only a question of when, where and how many.
The clues rolled in all summer: Gas prices held steady above $3 a gallon, and Chrysler's sales fell month after month.
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"That's what happens when cars don't sell. They cut shifts," said Kenyon Hall, who works at Chrysler's Belvidere, Ill., plant.
Chrysler is cutting shifts at five factories early next year, including Hall's, which makes the Dodge Caliber, Jeep Patriot and Jeep Compass.
The cuts come less than one week after Chrysler UAW members narrowly ratified a 4-year national contract.
On Thursday, Chrysler said it plans to shed as many as 10,000 hourly jobs by eliminating shifts and four models.
While disappointed about the job cuts, veteran workers said Chrysler, known for its survival, will see better days.
Every decade since the 1970s, Chrysler has experienced a restructuring or shakeup, including the automaker's federal bailout in 1979-82 and its failed marriage with Daimler-Benz in 1998 that ended this year.
"In a way, it's going in a positive direction, if you look at the big picture," said Chuck Lloyd, who works at Chrysler's Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit. "If you look small, it looks terrible."
Among the plants to lose shifts are Toledo North, which makes the Jeep Liberty and the Dodge Nitro, and Sterling Heights Assembly, which makes the Dodge Avenger and Chrysler Sebring.
With the new cuts, Detroiter Ike Orton, who works at Sterling Heights Assembly, said he expects to be laid off next year. "I thought we were in good shape, because we had new cars," said Orton, 50.
But reaction to the Chrysler Sebring proved otherwise.
Through October, Chrysler sold 75,148 Sebrings, a vehicle released last year that was widely panned by critics.
While that's a 51% jump compared with the previous year, sales are lower than such comparable models as the Ford Fusion, which sold 123,729 units through October.
In Toledo, a local union president said the cuts were disappointing but expected with falling sales.
"We don't have the ability to negotiate sales," said Bruce Baumhower, president of UAW Local 12, which represents 4,000 workers at Toledo North. "The market has always dictated how many shifts we run and what our volumes are."
He said he hopes job-security provisions, and possibly buyouts, would help workers through the transition.
Some workers said they hoped that, with the right changes, Chrysler will recover.
"This thing is going to turn around for us," said Vencient Carroll, a hi-lo driver at Jefferson North. "It's going to be better in the end."
Contact JEWEL GOPWANI at 313-223-4550 or jgopwani@freepress.com.
About Me
- Alan Maki
- I have been involved in the peace, labor, civil rights, and environmental movements for over 30 years, and I am a socialist. I would encourage everyone to get involved in promoting the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which came into existence on December 10, 1948; we should strive to use the yearly anniversary of this document to popularize it. We need to struggle to create a more progressive, socially just society where all working people receive real living wages and have a voice at work, and in their communities. I have worked with casino workers across Minnesota who are trying to organize a union. I have worked with people in northern Minnesota struggling to save the Big Bog, the primary freshwater aquifer--- this bog is being mined for peat. In my spare time during the spring and fall you can find me fly fishing on the Dark River, a pristine designated trout stream;in the winter ice fishing on Lake-of-the-Woods. I look forward to hearing from you. Nothing human is alien to me.