Posted on 03/16/2008 7:21:43 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Chrysler to shut down for fortnight as sales plunge
Andrew Clark and Mark Milner
The Guardian, Friday March 14 2008
The American carmaker Chrysler has told its 70,000 workers to take a two-week holiday in July, in a company-wide shutdown reflecting plunging sales of vans and lorries.
Chrysler, which is owned by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital, is smaller than rivals Ford and General Motors, and is being squeezed by soaring petrol prices.
In an internal memo, Robert Nardelli , chief executive, asked staff to approach the idea "with an open mind and a team spirit". He wrote: "In order to create better alignment and efficiency across organisational lines and boost productivity, Chrysler will use a corporate-wide vacation shutdown for the weeks of July 7 and July 14."
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Paid or unpaid?
Slo-motion slow down.
I’ll bet Cerberus Capital had no idea how much of a cash-flow sucker an asset-heavy automaker can be when it runs below breakeven. I predict bankruptcy in a year.
I think all the automakers shut down for two weeks in July, every year, for maintenance and model year change-over.
Why cant chrysler sell stuff to all the countries that are swimming in dollars?
solve this and you solve our problem.
There’s money to be made. Just keep the Jeep and Minivans.
As long as I can remember the automakers shut down for 2 weeks in the summer for model change over.
Live better, work union.
Cerberus Capital, eh? Interesting name as Cerberus is the mythological dog guarding the gate to Hell/Hades.
My father worked for GM for 44 years and this was a common practice back then. They would close the plant to retool for new models.
The same folks he fooled 8 years ago (myself unfortunately included).
Meanwhile, Honda’s factories building their smaller models here in the USA are running full-tilt trying to keep up with demand. In fact, that’s why they’re building the new Greensburg, IN plant—they need the extra capacity to build more Civic cars and (very likely) the second-generation Honda Fit that will be shown at the New York Auto Show this coming week.
A fortnight? That’s about two weeks, Fahrenheit?
I saw an interview with a PR hack on Friday who insisted this was not due to lower demand. She swore it was just the first time the company had decided to coordinate all plant retooling at the same time.
The host called BS and so did I.
Yes and no. They do need to retool, but Chrysler has never shut down all of their plants at the same time to do it.
Maybe we can get Challengers at fire-sale prices.
I wouldn’t mind buying a Patriot if they offer it at an even lower price.
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