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February 1, 2008
AUBURN HILLS - Chrysler LLC has begun handing out layoff notices to dozens of employees at the company's technical center in Auburn Hills while the United Auto Workers moved to file formal protests in an effort to block the cuts.
Chrysler spokeswoman Michelle Tinson confirmed that 119 salaried designers, who belong to the UAW, were notified Thursday that they were being placed on indefinite layoff.
Jeff Hagler, president of UAW Local 412, told The Oakland Press that the union would file grievances over the layoffs. "They didn't even follow seniority. They just came in, tapped people on the shoulder and told them to leave. The unit chairman wasn't even given the names of the people until an hour after it happened," Hagler said.
Chrysler also violated the contract with the UAW that the company signed only last fall by retaining contract employees, who don't belong to the union but essentially perform the same tasks, Hagler said.
Tinson, however, said the layoffs were carried out in accordance with terms of the 2007 UAW-Chrysler labor pact. "We are not in any way in violation of the contract," Tinson said.
The layoffs "are volumerelated," which means they are tied to declines in the company's production and sales, Tinson said. Chrysler announced last November that it planned to eliminate between 8,500 and 10,000 hourly and salaried employees by late spring because of a drop in demand.
The November cuts followed a February announcement by Chrysler, saying it planned to eliminate between 10,000 and 12,000 hourly and salaried jobs throughout operations in North America and Europe as part of a "recovery and transformation plan" dictated by the company's financial losses, which totaled $1.6 billion in 2006.
Chrysler's new owner, Cerberus Capital Management, no longer discloses information about company finances, but the automaker's losses are estimated at $1 billion in 2007.
Chrysler officials, who asked to not be identified, said cuts deemed volume-related do benefit employees. The employees idled this week are eligible for 48 weeks of supplemental unemployment benefits, and if there are still no jobs for them at the end of the period, they will move into the Jobs Bank for up to two years while drawing 95 percent of their regular pay.
The unionized salaried jobs in Auburn Hills have been a point of contention between the company and the union.
Last fall, Local 412 also protested Chrysler's plan to offer buyouts to about 100 other salaried designers who work in the same unit involved in Thursday's layoffs.
Hagler said he did not know how many employees accepted the company's offer.
Officials from both sides expressed frustration that the skirmishing continued, following last fall's contract approval.
"I want this to be the most efficient engineering organization in the world," Hagler told The Oakland Press. "But they're not hearing our ideas. They don't seem to be interested."
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