Layoffs may affect student
By Heather Mangold
City
Editor
A Purdue student said that his family could suffer
from a recent decision by DaimlerChrysler to lay off 26,000 employees
over the next three years.
Jeremy VanBriggle, a junior in the School of Technology,
is an employee of the Chrysler plant in Kokomo, Ind. along with his
father and an uncle. VanBriggle's mother works for Chrysler's credit
union and two of his grandfathers are retired from the company. The
company has employed his family for years.
Chrysler Group intends to implement this turnaround
plan in order to regain competitiveness under difficult business circumstances,
according to a news release.
"Part of this process may be painful for many people,"
said Dieter Zetsche, group president and chief executive officer of
Chrysler. "However, to be truly competitive in today's auto industry
environment, we need to be a more nimble company, more closely aligned
with current and future market conditions."
The process may be painful for VanBriggle, and
his family especially.
VanBriggle said the company was doing well until
three years ago when new German executives fired American executives.
He thinks that the new turnaround plan is due to bad management on the
part of the new executives.
Chrysler's American engineers were rapidly producing
concept cars that the company might bring out on the market, such as
the PT Cruiser, but the new management stopped all that, said VanBriggle.
Chrysler has indicated that 23,700 hourly employees
and 4,920 salaried employees are currently eligible for retirement.
The number of layoffs included in the plan will be determined by participant
rates in retirement programs, according to the release.
VanBriggle's father would love early retirement
from the company if he were given compensation, including insurance
and full pension, for the 28 years that he has worked at Chrysler. "He
would take it and run," said VanBriggle.
VanBriggle's father is 48 years old and relatively
young, according to VanBriggle. If he gets laid off, his father would
make his livelihood as a farmer, which has always been something that
he's wanted to do.
"Given that Chrysler Group has a large number of
retirement-eligible employees, we believe that a large part of our goal
can be reached through voluntary special retirement programs by the
end of the first quarter of this year," said Zetsche.
VanBriggle's family plans to be cautious in the
event that the family does not have employment from the company in the
future.
"I know my mom is thinking about selling the Durango
to keep payments down," said VanBriggle, "Our family isn't hurting,
but it's just to be safe."
The plan would be achieved within the framework
of existing union contracts, said Zetsche.
The United Auto Workers has a long history of negotiating
contracts designed to protect its members, their families and their
communities from cyclical and structural changes in the market, said
United Auto Workers president Stephen P. Yokich.
Zetsche said that Chrysler’s management team
has maintained an open and continuous dialogue with the leadership of
the United Auto Workers.
On Feb. 28, Chrysler Group will announce the full
details of its plan.
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