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"DaimlerChrysler To Cut 26,000 Jobs
Story Filed: Monday, January 29, 2001 10:52 AM EST
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- DaimlerChrysler announced plans Monday to cut 26,000 jobs over three years at its U.S.-based Chrysler division.
The cuts, part of a restructuring that is designed to pull Chrysler out of the red, amount to about 20 percent of DaimlerChrysler's North American work force.
The plan also calls for six manufacturing plants to be idled through 2002. Chrysler said it expects a large part of the job-cutting to be done through retirement programs,
achieved within the framework of existing union contracts.
The plan will reduce overall production capability by 15 percent.
``These decisions are absolutely necessary to be kept competitive and in fact to survive,'' Chrysler group president and chief executive Dieter Zetsche said at a news
conference Monday. ``They must be made as soon as possible to take control of costs and end uncertainty that many people are feeling. No one wants this to happen.''
Chrysler said the job cuts will involve 19,000 hourly workers and 6,800 salaried employees. United Auto Workers union spokesman Paul Krell declined to comment
immediately Monday. The union represents Chrysler's hourly workers.
The job cuts will be through a combination of retirements, special programs, layoffs and attrition.
Chrysler expects that three-quarters of the overall reduction will be achieved this year. Company officials would not comment on how much the automaker will save as a
result of the job cuts.
Plants slated to be idled include the Toluca transmission plant in Mexico, and assembly plants in Cordoba, Argentina, and Parana, Brazil.
Chrysler also plans to shift production from a Detroit engine plant to two other sites. In Mexico, Chrysler also plans to shift production from its assembly plant in Lago
Alberto and close its Toluca engine plant.
Production will be scaled back at plants in four states and Canada, including Detroit; Belvidere, Ill.; Toledo, Ohio; Newark, Del.; Brampton, Ontario, and two sites in
Windsor, Ontario.
``The only consolation is that many people at Chrysler have faced this before and responded well,'' Zetsche said.
Zetsche said Chrysler will unveil its complete plan to turn around the unprofitable division on Feb. 26.
Since the 1998 union between Daimler-Benz AG and Chrysler Corp., the German-American automaker has suffered a series of problems.
Last year, Chrysler posted a third-quarter loss of $512 million and warned that its fourth-quarter loss could more than double that amid a downturn in the U.S. auto market.
On Saturday, Germany's Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper reported the Chrysler unit could lose $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter.
In November, the company replaced key U.S. executive James P. Holden with Zetsche, a German executive from its commercial vehicles unit.
DaimlerChrysler's stock price has fallen steadily since reaching a high of $108 in January 1999. In trading on the New York Stock Exchange Monday morning, the
company's stock was down 58 cents to $47.66.
DaimlerChrysler has insisted it has no plans to spin off or sell Chrysler, which it bought in 1998 as part of its plan to extend the company's global reach."
