Just when it seemed like things couldn’t possibly get any worse for Chrysler, they did. The Michigan-based automaker announced on Monday that it will be idling its St. Louis South minivan plant indefinitely and will also be eliminating one shift at its St. Louis North truck plant.
Beginning October 31st, Chrysler will idle its St. Louis South plant, which produces the Chrysler Town and Country, the Dodge Grand Caravan and the Euro-spec Chrysler Grand Voyager. The move will leave 1,500 workers jobless, with no timeframe – if any – to reopen the plant.
In addition to the shuttering the South plant, Chrysler will also eliminate one shift at its St. Louis North truck plant, effective September 2nd. The shift elimination at the North facility – which will soldier on with only one shift – will cost 900 workers their jobs.
Chrysler blames the production reductions on the weakening economy and record-high oil prices. “Obviously we’re at slow point,” Chrysler co-president Jim Press told Automotive News. “Consumer confidence has been hit by oil prices and the credit crunch. It has created a situation if we want to meet or exceed the targets we have to move responsibly.”
The idling of the St. Louis minivan plant makes fiscal sense for Chrysler – as it can produce the same minivans in Windsor, Ontario for $1,000 less per vehicle, thanks to Canada’s national health care system – but UAW officials are upset about the shift elimination at the truck plant. Chrysler has a similar plant in Warren, Michigan, but Glenn Kage Jr., a representative of UAW Local 136 which staffs the St. Louis truck plant, says the Missouri plant lost out because of the Warren plant’s proximity to Detroit. “Detroit’s a national industrial hub and we’re far away,” he said.


06/30, 5:17 PM
posted by:
DialM4Speed
Hmmmm…. Kick the American worker in the ASS and give his job to a round bacon eater… THEN expect him to buy or recommend your products??? Yeah makes PERFECT sense succubus!
06/30, 5:18 PM
posted by:
ihustle
Chrysler is facing the repurcussions of there own actions. What happend to that hemi engine that they’ve been putting in almost all there vehicles. That engine has been “tossed” around more times then a Colts game. What does it get 12 MPG”s?Great job Chrysler!!!!! Whats funny is they spent all that money on a ‘fast’ engine for a truck, if your looking for speed buy a sports car. They repeatedly get beat down by Ford year after year in truck sales. And there charger?Why the hell would you make one of americas most prestine muscle car a 4 door? Its not a family vehicle. Could it get any heavier? There Wranglers have looked the same for the past 30 years, with no major improvements and an avg MPG of 18? Are you f-ken crazy? With a slumping economy you think they would make an effort to go green in some way, and im not talking about there electric go cart haha.There going to be the company that will be an example of what not to do while running an automobile company. Time to face the piper Chrysler, you have no one to blame but yourself.
06/30, 5:30 PM
posted by:
DialM4Speed
They put the Hemi in everything because it’s the engine people want the most! And so what if they made a V-8?? There’s always the option of the V-6 or even a 4 banger. Nobody’s forcing the Hemi on you. As for the Charger I personally think they shouldn’t have bothered with it. The 300 & Magnum were enough in my opinion. You think the Wrangler hasn’t changed it’s looks in 30 years??? Why don’t you say that about Porsche and there 911? That thing is so dated it’s ridiculous!
06/30, 5:37 PM
posted by:
ihustle
Why would you put a Hemi In a truck?what i dont understand if this thing is so great why does Ford kick there ass in towing and payload with there v-8. Instead of spending all that money re-creating the hemi they prob should of fucused on the quality of there trucks. Or there 4 door sports car(charger) or maybe thinking of a new bodystyle for the challenger that there trying to sell 10,000 over book. There retarded
06/30, 5:39 PM
posted by:
ihustle
The engine people want? Chrysler sold a totall of 150,000 vehicles last year. It must not be many people. Its funny how the company with the worst gas milage offers gas cards HAHAHAHA that lasted long. It was a scheme to keep people away from there 9,000 in rebates on there crappy products hahaha
06/30, 5:47 PM
posted by:
DialM4Speed
I’ll agree with you on one thing… Challenger was a totally STUPID idea! They won’t be able to give those ugly things away. Funny how people say Chrysler, Ford and GM only make gas guzzlers. Do you not see the 4 bangers they make? Chrysler had little electrics that were street legal YEARS ago! But ya didn’t see anyone buying them did you? Yet now everybody wants a toy battery car.
06/30, 5:52 PM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
I have a new Grand Caravan as a company vehicle and while I don’t have a lot of miles on the clock it drives and feels much better than the previous generation. I have two gripes however: it’s almost too big, and the first two engine choices are dinosaurs. I’m sure if you parked a new Caravan side by side with an original ‘84 the older model’s rear bumper probably wouldn’t even make it the rear axle line. The 3.3 and 3.8 have been with us since the Dynasty and New Yorker of the late ’80s and are way overdue for their last casting. I never understood why they discontinued the SWB versions. The old 2.2 hauled around the first generation with a paltry output of 100 hp, so you would think the 2.4 world engine could motivate a 5 passenger version of the current one with 74 more hp.
06/30, 6:07 PM
posted by:
Rick_WagonWheel
From the RenCen, I’m getting pissed off at the poor grammar shown by some of the posters.
“There” designates a place. As in: Park the car over there.
“Their” designates a possessive. As in: It is their car.
They’re is a conjunctive version of They are. As in: They’re riding in their car.
C’mon (a slang conjuctive of Come on) folks, get it right.
06/30, 6:52 PM
posted by:
ihustle
hey Rick take your own advice buddy. Take your name for example Rick_WagonWheel, shouldn’y it be Rick_wagon_wheel, since wagonwheel is not a word?
06/30, 8:21 PM
posted by:
golf4me
Thanks Rick WagonWheel. That needed to be done. Hopefully someone on the editorial staff of LLN reads it too…
06/30, 9:17 PM
posted by:
brassmonkey
DialM, good call on the round bacon reference. **** Canada.
06/30, 9:21 PM
posted by:
Rick_WagonWheel
When it is a proper name, it is a word. It is my family name. From the German it originally was Lastwagenrad, but that was too tedious, so we dropped the Last from the first, and translated the rest.
06/30, 9:29 PM
posted by:
bigp
i wish i could do something for them but i cant
06/30, 11:15 PM
posted by:
Get Real
Junk FWD transmissions may finally kill Chrysler off for good.
I’m sorry for the workers, but hell to pay for the engineers.
06/30, 11:26 PM
posted by:
TOZO
Yeah, DialM. Those little electric Chrysler GEM things sucked. No one wanted those. …Except maybe golfers golfing on flat land, and morbidly obese middle school custodians who wanted to run down schoolchildren who didnt get to class on time.
07/01, 2:17 AM
posted by:
Stinky007
Don’t blame it on Chrysler, it’s not their fault Americans suddenly decided to go from “redneck V8″ to “bring that diesel 4-banger to the U.S., pleaaaase!”
It’s down to politics I’m afraid, but that’s not something to be discussed here.
07/01, 12:04 PM
posted by:
ktulu
2 bad 4 dcx
07/01, 12:50 PM
posted by:
Blakkarr
DETROIT, despite bad moves on their part, is not entirely to blame for their current condition, the over abundance of credit, banks literally giving away credit cards, weak wages and salaries as to make repaying that credit very hard to near impossible, A housing market that was literally a house of card waiting for a stiff breeze to knock it over, and a corporate mentality of “greed is good” and “slash and burn” economics have laid the foundations for ruin.
I can not say when things went wrong. I can not say how exactly to fix it.. and even if I could it would not be America’s favorite snake oil, “the one-hit silver bullet”… which in the real world almost never happens.
As you can see some jobs could have been saved if the American people would look our representative in the eye and flatly tell them AND mean it, “fix the health care system or we will find some one who will.”
We, as individual and a people, have looked the other way, refused to take full responsibility, and do what is actually necessary to make a sustainable and forward moving economy, society, and country. This is just another symptom.
This mess is not going to fixed with one simple solution. It’s going to be a full and sometimes painful regiment of solutions that is going to save AMERICA’s economy and civilization. So be ready to swallow some pride and guard your loins, because what has to be done would have hurt a lot less if it were in place 20 years ago.
07/01, 5:03 PM
posted by:
DialM4Speed
How did the GEM cars suck? Like I said they were street legal plug-in (hey plug-in’s are all the range now) electric cars good for those short trips around the city. That’s what they say most people use their cars for anyway so it was there and available. Yet Americans PASSED ON IT! Now everybody’s crying for that **** so who’s to blame for that?
07/02, 11:01 AM
posted by:
shoptime
Blame Canada, Blame Canada! If all else fails boys you can blame it on us. We have broad shoulders. In the meantime just keep suckin up that black gold baby… yee haw!