Demoralized Workers, Angry Union Make Road Rougher For Turnaround.For Chrysler

The day after DaimlerChrysler AG said it might sell Chrysler, the American division's CEO Tom LaSorda gathered 200 of his top executives in the vast auditorium at the automaker's Auburn Hills headquarters. Chrysler's fate lies in their hands, he told them, according to managers who attended the meeting. "If we don't deliver, all bets are off."

But LaSorda warned them it wouldn't be easy to turn the company around. As Chrysler embarks on a second restructuring in six years, its management will be dealing with recalcitrant union representatives, demoralized employees and cutthroat competition.

Job cuts had been expected after Chrysler's results slumped in 2006. But employees were stunned Wednesday when DaimlerChrysler CEO Dieter Zetsche -- who ran Chrysler for nearly five years -- confirmed that the Stuttgart, Germany-based company was considering all options for its U.S. division, including a sale.

"The bombshell was the talk about the possibility of getting sold," said a salaried employee.


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EL34 - 2/16/2007 12:45:28 PM

+2 Boost

Here in California 3 years ago we had a strike by 75 thousand union grocery store workers for 5 months and I go to non-union grocery stores only since then unless I have to pick up a loaf of bread or a head of lettuce and I use the self checkout because I refuse to use their union workers for help.

Also at the non-union grocery stores I always return my cart, so there.

tomloy - 2/16/2007 12:54:50 PM

+1 Boost

There are lots of problems with unions, but lets not forget it was mistreatement of workers that led to unions in the first place. And these practices may return.

Chrysler needs to start importing the european versions of its products. A diesel Dodge magnum would sell, as would the 300C and the diesel caravan. And they need to start improving their vehicles year after year like the JAPANESE! Also the reliability needs to improve. The idea of making shoddy cars because you will then make money off repairs works on your customers ONCE! After that, they will buy from anyone but YOU!

isdmc - 2/16/2007 1:36:01 PM

+2 Boost

There are more than sufficient laws in place now to protect workers. Pigs would fly before the labor environment would return to the sweat shop days of the early 20th century.

Unions are the problem. Quality, efficiency, and reliability suffers in American car companies due to the institutionalized sloth of the unions. Just like the idiots at the Level Field Institute who think it's great that twice as many workers are used to build an American car than a Japanese car. The unions here in the US suffer from the delusion that car companies exist to produce jobs- not cars.

Hopefully, we will soon see the demise of the greedy unions that embrace sloth and inefficiency before the demise of the American car companies.

Threepoint1415926 - 2/16/2007 5:06:01 PM

+3 Boost

The problem with using diesel in the US is California diesel emissions. They are by far the toughest in the world for particulate matter. As more and more states adopt California emissions standards, it's hard to produce a 50 state car. The cleanest diesel I know of (the Bluetec) is just barely good enough...

M53R - 2/16/2007 3:01:58 PM

0 Boost

Thats not true. If they make good cars they will be successfuk. The problem is their design team isnt doing their job well. They need to update their line? up and put more effort to increase their reliability and quality. No one can be successful without working hard and I think they should start now....

woood - 2/17/2007 10:05:28 AM

+1 Boost

I agree with isdmc totally. Even if you have a great product, you still cannot beat Toyota for production cost because of the union issue. Chrysler has a lot of good products under DaimlerChrysler, but somehow there still something holding them down. Maybe its the labor cost of producing one vehicle?

Kostin - 2/18/2007 5:48:03 AM

+1 Boost

In my opinion Mercedes made a big mistake when they decided to use OLD Mercedes technology on Chrysler.For example,the Crossfire.It's interior is a copy of an old model Mercedes.The diesel engines used in Europe are 98% old model Mercedes engines with small modifications to keep up with the pollution standards.
Mercedes was not so interested in Chrysler's succes.
Look at the Voyager.A genuine coffin on wheels.It scored 1,5-(minus)out of 5 Stars at EuroNcap crash test,the same score as the Aveo,another good coffin on wheels.
The Voyager is a family car or should i say A "Family Killer Car"
With their technology,couldn't they crash test it on their own before launching it on sale?
This shows only that Daimler-Chrysler doesn't give a rat's ass about it's customers.
Why would i buy a Chrysler when the market is FULL of other brands who show more respect to their customers.