Word: chrysler
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...been in the middle of quietly challenging the government's plan to close it down for three months now. The Administration has now sent its car experts to Detroit, and they have said that a bankruptcy of either GM or Chrysler is undesirable. They did not elaborate much on this analysis, but, from the standpoint of the car companies, they do not need to. It is enough that the blue chip analysts sent by the President to evaluate the car companies have a belief system that matches the one in The Motor City. (See pictures of the remains of Detroit...
...Chrysler may be trying to push the CAW's wage costs below that of the UAW's. Chrysler's hourly compensation for its Canadian work force, including non-wage benefits such as paid time off, is about $58 (C$75) compared with $55 in the U.S . The Detroit Three have extensive operations in Canada because under the Auto Pact signed in the 1960s, they agreed to make 60% of the cars sold to Canadians in their country. In exchange, tariffs were removed from vehicle imports...
...plans to play hardball. "I'm incredibly frustrated," says CAW president Ken Lewenza, adding that his union will not play by a new set of improvised rules. He also challenged LaSorda's assertion that Chrysler's operations in southern Ontario are uncompetitive. "They've always been very profitable, even in the toughest times," says Lewenza. Chrysler recently closed a minivan plant in St. Louis, and last week killed a third shift at its minivan plant in Windsor, Ont., throwing 1,200 people out of work. This suggests that even while minivan sales are sagging with the economy, the company...
...addition to demanding $2.3 billion in loans from Ottawa, Chrysler also wants the Canada Revenue Agency, that nation's tax collector, to stop hounding the automaker for more than $1 billion in taxes mistakenly paid to the U.S. years ago. The Canadian government only recently uncovered the error, and has since placed a lien against Chrysler's Brampton, Ont. plant and withheld $235.5 million in tax rebates...
Despite LaSorda's tough talk, questions are being raised about whether the Windsor native, whose father was a CAW representative at one of the plants he's threatening to close, might be playing the biggest bluff of his career. It seems hard to imagine Chrysler turning its back on the billions it has invested in Canada, and more than 9,000 employees. That LaSorda is even discussing it, though, is a measure of how desperate the times are for automakers. "I'm hoping it's a bluff," says the CAW's Lewenza, "but I've seen this company mothball plants...