Autoblog

Back in late February we reported on Chrysler's early retirement and separation program that the automaker hoped would help it shed 13,000 jobs over the next three years. The company was planning on saying goodbye to about 5,700 hourly (read: union) workers this year, of which around 1,000 would be from Canada. That means Chrysler hoped at least 4,700 of its hourly workers in the U.S. would take the buyout offer that offered a lump sum of up to $100,000 to workers willing to leave.

The Detroit Free Press is reporting that in fact around 6,400 hourly workers in the U.S. have said they're interested in taking the buyout, nearly 40% more than Chrysler planned. While the purchase of Chrysler by Cerberus Capital Management was seen as a good thing for the automaker going forward, the larger than expected response to its buyout offer suggests that many of Chrysler's hourly workers believe the writing's still on the wall. Analysts speculate that rather than stick around and drag down the company, these workers feel their retirement benefits will be more secure if they leave now to help the company and ensure its future.

Not expecting such high demand, Chrysler has also reportedly slowed down the buyout process to a halt. Only now have a number of workers departed who expressed interest in leaving the company when the program was announced in late February. It's like that some of those hoping to leave this year will be denied the buyout offer, which is something Ford was forced to do when too many salaried workers accepted its buyout offer.

[Source: The Detroit Free Press]

Word has just come across the wire that Nissan will be offering a "voluntary transition program" to all of its hourly employees working in either its Smyrna or Dechard manufacturing plants in Tennessee. These are effectively buyouts, which can net an hourly worker a lump sum of $45,000 and a bonus $500 for each year of service. It's certainly not the sweet deal offered to members of the UAW who work for General Motors and Ford, but the offer could help Nissan reduce the rank and file of its relatively young and non-union work force in North America. For whatever reason, the offer is only being made to employees at these two plants in Tennessee. The Smyrna plant employs about 6,700 people, though some are surely salaried, and produces the Altima, Frontier, Maxima, Xterra and Pathfinder. The Dechard plant only employs 1,400 people and produces many of Nissan's engines, including the glorious VQ 3.5L V6. This news is pretty fresh, so we'll keep our ears peeled for reaction from the auto pundits.

[Source: Jalopnik]

As soon as we heard about DC's Project X, we knew the hits to Chrysler employees were forthcoming, but we didn't expect them to be so large and so fast. According to the Detroit News, next week Chrysler Group will announce their intentions to layoff 1,000 salaried workers, along with 10,000 hourly workers from underperforming US plants.

The salaried workers are not under union contract so their eminent dismissal will be unfettered, while reduced shifts at select factories will see the layoff of factory workers, who, unlike Ford and GM, will not be offered buyouts or early retirements. However, unionized hourly workers will receive a cash payout of $50k or more, including a voucher that will allow them to buy a Chrysler vehicle.

All this, according to the Detroit News' sources, will accompany plant closures, possibly in Newark, Delaware where pickup trucks are produced, as well as an engine plant in Detroit. Other production cuts may include shift reductions in St. Louis, Mo., the Jefferson North plant in Detroit and plants in Windsor and Brampton, Ontario.

The official announcement will supposedly take place next week, when DaimlerChrysler begins to seriously divulge the plans included in their Orwellian sounding Project X.

[Source: Detroit News]

Not surprisingly, the United Auto Workers have taken issue with a bonus plan proposed for Delphi's executive management, saying that if the bonuses were to pass, it would ruffle some feathers as the two parties proceed with negotiations. The plan, which Delphi successfully petitioned the judge for in the first half of 2006, is in place to keep compensation at a level necessary to retain the best talent at the executive level, the company says. UAW workers don't agree, and as such, have filed objections with the court.

[Source: Reuters via Automotive News]