Extended holiday shutdown to reduce Chrysler inventory?

Workers at some Chrysler plants recieved shocking news just they prepare to break for the holidays. Despite efforts to reduce bloated inventory levels, it looks like they'll have their holiday vacations extended due to continuing issues with overcapacity. Dealers have been quoted as saying that some of the production facilities were "out of sync" with the market.

Plants that may be shut down for an extended time include Jefferson North, Warren Assembly in Detroit, as well as plants in St. Louis; Newark, Delaware; Toledo, Ohio and Windsor, Ontario. These plants are responsible for the production of some minivan models, the Dodge Ram, Jeep Commander and Liberty, Dodge Magnum and Chrysler PT Cruiser. Chrysler will build only 1,000 units each next month of the Jeep Grand Cherokee, Dodge Dakota, Chrysler 300 and Chrysler Aspen, working to further cut down excess inventory that swelled to 164,000 2006 model year units at the end of November.

Although the shutdowns are rumored to be only a couple of extra weeks longer than the normal holiday break, plant workers fear they'll extend even deeper into the '07 calendar.

[Source: just-auto (sub req)]