Chrysler Workers Await News on Model Cuts, Changes

At a Jeep factory in Toledo, Ohio, workers fear that Chrysler's new Italian management will scrap one of the two models they make, costing some of them their jobs.

The same anxiety is felt at Chrysler Group LLC plants around the country as Fiat SpA CEO Sergio Marchionne, who now controls the company, readies a new plan that will include cutting redundant models and adding smaller Fiats to the lineup.

A person briefed on Marchionne's plan says at least some details will be announced before or during the Frankfurt auto show in Germany, which begins Sept. 15. The person didn't want to be identified because plans are not final.

Marchionne has ordered U.S. executives to come up with model cuts so a particular car or truck is sold only under one of the company's three brands, Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep.

At the 2.1 million-square-foot Toledo North Jeep plant, which makes the Dodge Nitro and Jeep Liberty midsize sport utility vehicles, workers are worried that Marchionne will cut the slow-selling Nitro to focus on the Liberty.

"It's not a high volume of sales," said Dan Henneman, chairman of United Auto Workers Local 12, which represents the north plant's 1,100 hourly workers. "We know that for sure. We look at the orders daily for what we build at the plant."

So far this year, Chrysler has sold only 11,000 of the boxy Nitros, down 57 percent from the first seven months of 2008. The Liberty hasn't fared much better, selling only 26,579, or 41 percent fewer than last year.

Apprehension about job losses extends over the Ohio border to Kokomo, Ind., where Chrysler has a huge complex employing 1,800 hourly workers who make transmissions for much of its model lineup including the Nitro.

Mike Hunter, who repairs gauges on the plant's machinery, fears some Fiat transmissions will be used to replace the Chrysler transmissions he helps make, or that products like the Nitro could be cut.