Today in Stuttgart, Germany, the automaker's governing supervisory board is expected to approve a restructuring plan for its money-losing U.S. arm. Eligible salaried workers have until Wednesday to accept the early retirement offers. Offers to hourly employees will be timed to planned production cuts, which could change depending on market conditions. It is unsettling not only for those who will leave, but for those left behind. I myself didn't take a stand one way or the other, but right now I think it was a bad deal, a bad decision.
Most people feel that way.
Chrysler group management knows it has to take a leadership role in refocusing and redirecting the energies of people toward the turnaround. Chrysler's contract with the United Auto Workers union provides laid off workers with 95 percent of their take-home pay through 2003. Choplick was there in the late 1970s, when the charismatic Lee Iacocca convinced the federal government to bail Chrysler out of near-bankruptcy. Now, there's a lot of skepticism. I think our guys are doing the best they can to keep their eye on the ball and make good Jeeps and not get sidetracked by what's going on in Germany.