The slowdown will enable the company to cut up to 500 jobs on the line, combine positions and increase the number of tasks performed by the remaining workers. The job cuts are part of 26,000 that DaimlerChrysler announced worldwide. Today is the last day for Newark workers to tell DaimlerChrysler executives if they will accept the retirement incentives. Workers leaving the plant Thursday said they were waiting to hear the final count, expected to be released next week. It's kind of quiet right now.
Workers also are eligible for retirement benefits.
Earlier in the month, plant managers said that, based on programs at other plants, they expected about 40 percent of eligible workers to take the incentives. That would have translated to about 314 retirements. But according to the preliminary numbers released Thursday, about 64 percent of eligible workers intend to take the offer. Gov. Ruth Ann Minner was returning Thursday from meetings with DaimlerChrysler managers in Germany. But her spokeswoman, Michelle Reardon, said the number of workers who want to take advantage of the incentives is significant.