Plans by Chrysler Group LLC to add nearly 900 jobs to its Sterling Heights factory in suburban Detroit were greeted with guarded optimism Friday from a United Auto Workers Local 72 official, although she said it was uncertain what the news means for some 600 Kenosha Engine Plant workers.
“It’s going to affect different people different ways depending on their circumstances,” said Peni Keeling, vice-president of Local 72. “For the majority, it won’t change their location or circumstances because the majority of our membership is retirees. But it does give more opportunity for anyone who would be interested in transferring, and more opportunity is always good.”
However, Local 72 has yet to receive a letter from the company giving the required 60-days notice for the precise closing date of the plant, and Jodi Tinson, a Chrysler spokeswoman, said she could only repeat that the plant will be closed by the end of this year, the same as has been reported since the company filed for bankruptcy in 2009.
Keeling said the union expects the letter will be forthcoming next month, with the closing to be set in late October. “That’s pretty much what we’ve been told all along,” Keeling said.
Among the uncertainties regarding the additional jobs at the Sterling Heights assembly plant, which had been scheduled for shut down in 2012 before the plans were announced, is how many Kenosha employees might fill the new positions. An Associated Press story cites Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne saying a combination of laid-off workers from other factories and new hires would fill them.
Tinson said the number of new hires would depend on how many workers from plants that are closing decide to retire or transfer into the additional Sterling Heights jobs or openings at other Chrysler facilities.
Keeling said about 20 workers at the Kenosha plant are from the Detroit area. “We hope they will be able to go home,” she said. “There will be another group we’re hoping will be able to go to Belvedere (Ill.).”
Last year, a number of workers from Chrysler’s Belvedere plant were brought to Kenosha, but Keeling said it’s unclear at present how many will be deemed eligible to retire. She said it’s also uncertain whether those who may be eligible would choose instead to exercise their seniority rights to transfer into new jobs.
According to Keeling, “roughly 50-75, maybe even up to 100” Local 72 members working in the Kenosha plant are eligible, with another group just shy of pension credits who would be eligible sometime next year. But she said the “eligibility window” for the latter is unclear, as is how the company will handle that situation. “We’ve asked them to handle that. We’ve made them well aware of the seniority in the plant,” she said.
Another uncertainty is whether temporary employees hired at a lower pay scale — who knew when they were hired that the plant would be closing — will have transfer rights and whether they could displace other temporary hires elsewhere.
Of the 200-250 hourly production workers at the Kenosha Engine Plant, Keeling said 100 are temporary hires and “a little over 100 are seniority employees.” In addition, the UAW represents 30 engineers, 18 janitors and eight clerical workers at the plant, she said. Another 30 plant workers are represented by International Association of Machinists Lodge 66.
In Chrysler’s bankruptcy filing last year, the Kenosha plant was identified as one of eight the automaker would close by the end of 2010. The plant is now in the hands of Old Carco LLC, the portion of Chrysler that Italian automaker Fiat spun off when it purchased a majority of Chrysler’s assets last year.
Tinson said if the Kenosha plant closes before the additional jobs open in Sterling Heights, affected Kenosha employees — as with workers at Chrysler’s other plants, including Twinsburg, Ohio, which closed Friday — could take retirement if eligible. However, under the bankruptcy filing, none can be laid off and therefore would have to be offered jobs in other Chrysler facilities.
“Under the bankruptcy agreement there is no jobs bank anymore. They would have to be redeployed. They certainly will be offered opportunities to fill jobs at other plants,” Tinson said. Who and how many that might entail, she couldn’t say. “It all depends on how many folks we have who take retirement, get laid off (due to closings) and the number of positions available,” Tinson said.
The Sterling Heights assembly plant now employs 1,270 workers and produces the mid-size Chrysler Sebrings, Sebring convertibles and Dodge Avengers. The Kenosha Engine Plant manufactures 2.7- and 3.5-liter V6 engines for those models as well as Chrysler 300s, Dodge Charger and Dodge Journey.
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How many will take opportunity when presented with it? How many will refuse to move and arrogantly demand that jobs be brought back here? How many will realize the auto industry is shaky and go back to school for training in a more stable industry? How many will take their very generous early retirement, then gripe about it for the rest of their lives? There is so much more out there than auto industry jobs. Open your eyes and your minds.
are junk.
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