Earlier this week, Chrysler employees at the automaker’s Newark, Delaware assembly plant were offered buyout and early retirement packages. Close to 1,600 United Auto Workers union members are employed at the plant. Those hourly workers eligible for early retirement are to receive $70,000 and full retiree health care and pension benefits, while the rest are tempted with $100,000.
Still, not all employees got the offer, including non-manufacturing workers and those at the Mopar parts distribution centers.
In related news, Ford issued a one-week extension on its buyout offer deadlines at five closed US plants to allow UAW workers time to consider their options. According to company labor negotiator Marty Mulloy, two of the 10 buyout plans include money in tax-deferred retirement accounts or annuities.
“We wanted to give the people some time to evaluate the tax-efficient option we agreed with the UAW to offer,†Mulloy said.
After two years of deficits in the billions, Ford is trying to return to profit in 2009, and the buyout offers at the five closed plants in Missouri, New Jersey, Georgia, Virginia and Ohio are one of the company’s latest moves towards that goal.
