If I had a penny forever supposed automotive expert that told me Chrysler would be dead by spring, I’d have a full tank of gas. I couldn’t help it — I bet for Mopar every time. While the dangling Pentastar has taken a few nicks, it’s still glimmering with hope for Michigan people who lean tough on some aspect of the domestic automotive industry.
Here it is June, and the assembly lines are cranking up for first, second and third shifts, and pension checks have been sent out. Chrysler, who has long been the bronze contender of Detroit, is still hanging on as Big GM and Classic Ford switch from first to second.
Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy freeze last week. They’re not out of the woods, but they’re still in business. My father, a Chrysler loyalist forever, in his usual stoic die hard way has been forwarding me emails circulating amongst his fellow retirees, with cautious, skeptical splinters of pride. While many of those who bleed Chrysler blood have lost big this year — from line workers, to engineers and admin assistants to vps and 789 dealers and their employees — it’s still astounding that this scrappy company knows how to morph into viability. (How many new Chryslers are on the road? How many new cars, period, are leaving dealerships?)
It seems at last the company is back to business as usual — management reconfigurations. For as long as I’ve known Chrysler execs they’ve played musical jobs. At least some of their key players have held on, like everyone’s favorite 300C design chief Ralph Gilles.
A lot of work remains ahead and probably some more growing pains, as Chrysler attempts to blend with Italian leadership. This wasn’t a smooth process when Daimler swooped in after the then CEO sold his company out. I have my own war stories from a summer stint in the U.S. Newsroom in ‘98 racing to get the company clips out first.
There are positives in quality of life for workers with this exposure to the Italian way of doing business– expect really good coffee in the Auburn Hills cafeteria and possible shutdown at lunchtime. Fresh from my own adventures in Italy, I can help but think that some notion of irreverent romance will add a little sauce to the pragmatic Midwestern disposition.
Sometimes mergers produce twists of fate in the epilogue from — I’ve heard that for those Chrysler investors who didn’t dump stocks, their Daimler holdings are looking up. I’m not throwing my vintage Dodge gear on eBay anytime soon.
Here’s how company docs are explaining business as usual: Chrysler Group LLC, formed in 2009 from a global strategic alliance with Fiat Group, produces Chrysler, Jeep®, Dodge and Mopar® brand vehicles and products. With the resources, technology and worldwide distribution network required to compete effectively on a global scale, the alliance builds on Chrysler’s culture of innovation, first established by Walter P. Chrysler in 1925, and Fiat’s complementary technology.
Headquartered in Auburn Hills, Mich., Chrysler Group LLC’s product lineup features some of the world’s most recognizable vehicles, including the Chrysler Town & Country, Jeep Wrangler and Dodge Ram. Fiat will contribute world-class technology, platforms and powertrains for small- and medium-sized cars, allowing Chrysler Group LLC to offer an expanded product line including environmentally friendly vehicles.
If all goes according to plan, we as Americans, are making an investment. We are making an investment in the future of the American car, the global vehicle.
If all goes according to plan, GM will be put back together again in a structure more efficient than the former bloated structure.
If all goes Chrysler will make bella cars for small-car seeking American drivers, the way Fiat does across Europe.
If all goes according to plan, we are moving toward an energy efficient future.
If all goes according to plan, the dealers, suppliers, executives, UAW plant workers, retirees and contractors who’ve are in financial straits, will find new avenues for survival.
At least, that’s what the plan calls for. What remains to be seen is how this plan will play out on everyday lives, how unforeseen events will affect this game, how people will pick up the pieces, and how Americans are going to buy and sell cars to make all of this rebuilding possible. Or as Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm put it today, “We’re starting to hit rock bottom. We know there is an end to this.” We have the plan, now the end of the story remains to be written.
After one week in the belly of the beast, I’ve returned to the hustle and bustle of New York City, 600 miles away from Detroit, but it might as well be one million. The sleepless city is hustle and bustle with the last rush of spring before it gives away to summer. People are shopping, albeit with coupons, but they are on the make. What a contrast to Detroit and it’s ancillary suburbs, where everyday life is in a frantic shuffle.
Sunday brunch noon at the once popular Sweet Lorraine’s in Livonia. Only three tables seated. Unemployed get-in-free night at the movies in Novi. Budget dining in Birmingham — the discreetly priced menu to keep people coming back even when they can barely afford it. Flood’s bar downtown Detroit on a Wednesday evening packed to the gills. People still have drinking money. Youngsters clamored for the budget deal of the Movement festival weekend package. Young Detroiters are looking for anyway to take the edge off, to forget, to be together, to get out of the house. Jogging, a free activity (if you don’t count expensive Nike kicks) is growing in popularity. Dance classes I attended were full and fierce. Long lines at job fairs with former proud vice presidents and administrative assistants rubbing elbows, hoping for a few open positions at Comcast or tech serv.
Mile after mile of for sale, foreclosure, forewarned. The conversations I had — with laid off workers, sons of wary car dealers, moms working triple shifts, buyout takers, and fearful students caring for fired parents — are too numerous to recount in quick soundbites. People are bracing for the storm, and their livelihood, their personal struggles deserve to be flushed out and heard. (More on that to come.)
The storm is only beginning to gather wind in the intangibles of banking lingo to the reality of hard-luck times. The impending disaster of GM looms uncomfortably close and very few really understand what this complex process entails for the everyday person, in Detroit and beyond. I’m not the only one shaking in my boots — see this excellent column forwarded to me by a GM spokesperson.
The General Motors question is a quagmire that is so massive, that we have no grasp of the tentacles this giant octopus entails. We’re talking about dismantling the backbone to our infrastructure secured in bonds and financing and hoping that it can be put back together again. I hope I’m wrong, about the supplier networks, the small business hard luck tales, the lack of structural support. I hope I’m wrong that no one will buy cars from a company or two in bankruptcy.
What worries me most is the morale in Detroit and what I felt — the cold, dark blanket of hopelessness, depression taking it’s toll after the buildup of constant anxiety. People need to keep socializing, keep moving, try not to drink too much, and be healthy. People need their basics, too, and the homeless and mentally ill need services, as their ranks grow. The mental health agency where my mother works in Detroit that serves a good portion of this population received a 25% budget cut. Where will these people go? Take a look at the foot traffic in some neighborhoods and see.
This is not to say that Detroiters are a fragile bunch. In contrast, across most communities is a strong, proud stock. I bring that message back, too. It’s what I heard from the musicians who rose to the stage and sang of their city with pride, like Monica Blaire, who performed in a solo showcase at the Charles H. Wright African American Museum and inspired with a message of hope and give-all-you-got effort at full crescendo. (Sing it Blaire!)
Detroiters are rooting for sports teams with more vigor, (even if they can’t afford tickets to the games) looking for signs of small victories and the possibility of elevator interviews.
Some people are plowing forward, who see rebirth in the wake of the destruction, who are plotting about life after cars. In my coverage of Movement, I learned about Recycle Detroit and the efforts of young entrepreneur in the mix on the greening of the city. What’s going to be happen remains to be seen, the unraveling of the Detroit economey seems to extend at least 5 years in the future. The bottom is still coming.
But it does it really have to be this way? Does Detroit need to give up the car business? I’m not convinced we need to throw in the towel. This taste of rain, is bittersweet, a cold damp that is hard to shake. I hope not. What we need now is the greatest turnaround in the history of American business, an All-American happy ending.
At least for now, people are keeping an eye on the forecast:
Unemployed Detroit auto workers have found more friends in late night television.
Rapper Eminem and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel plan to fly 200 of the jobless workers to Hollywood for “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
“The auto workers, many of whom live and work in the Detroit area and are affected by the auto industry crisis, will come to Los Angeles to enjoy a rare talk and musical performance by Eminem,” ABC said in a statement.
This follows comedian Jay Leno’s successful “comedy stimulus plan” show in April in suburban Detroit that was aimed at bringing some comic relief to the battered city.
Michigan has the highest unemployment rate of any U.S. state at 12.6 percent, primarily due to the massive layoffs by struggling Detroit automakers. The jobless rate in Detroit is 22 percent, almost three times the national average.
Eminem, originally from Detroit, has also recorded a video tribute to the city that acknowledges its contribution to the economy and praises its resilience.
The rapper’s biographical movie “8 Mile” was filmed in Detroit and some of its bleak suburbs.
Eminem is performing on Kimmel’s show to promote his new album “Relapse,” the first in more than four years.
The auto workers, along with a guest, will also be treated to a private concert in Detroit by the Grammy-winning rapper.
The owners of car dealerships were once the king of the roosts — the bigger conglomerates held sway in communities, big and small.
While the automotive infrastructure crumbles in bankruptcy court, hundreds of dealerships implode — and the ramifications are yet to be realized. Chrysler released a list of dealers that have been cut from the roster — 789 in total across the country. On this list, 43 of these are in Michigan, and I can only picture how these empty lots will look speckled in prime vantage point from the major roads — yet another reminder of the sweeping challenges for those who depend on cars for bread n’ butter. Not so good for the new message of morale.
Car dealers have long held a curious roll in the car buying process –the public face of the company to consumers. Bad dealers sometimes ran with bad reps, historically discrimating against women and minorities and preying on consumers. Five star dealer networks were developed to offset these operations, since contractually car companies were unable to be reigned in as autonomous entities. In recent seasons, this equates to lack of profits for unrewarded dealers. Perhaps this bankruptcy move will bring in some more sense to Chrysler dealers, like their Lexus counterparts that built a business of luxury rooted in customer service. Saturn was apt in this department, but this marquee didn’t flourish in its model lineup luster.
More likely this move is a mix of profit, pride and pitfalls with hard luck stories in the making as idle cars are left for dead. Many of these dealers are located in rural locales where population density factored in the sales department. Reps from NADA flew to Washington to lobby their case.
For GM this list is even larger — GM is planning to cut about 2,600 of its 6,246 dealerships. That’s a lot of jobs, a lot of cars and a lot of Main Street storefronts. Also, worth noting, most consumers lean on dealer service departments, so this news also takes a toll on existing owners. Hello warranty!
Editor’s Note: We’ll be posting Detroit stories as we hear them from the field. Here we hear from former Detroiter Carolyn C. from Bowling Green, Ohio whose family has been struck directly and indirectly by the auto industry woes. We’d like to hear from you, too.
My step dad was laid off from the auto industry. He still resides in Walled Lake. My brother was laid off in January, although not from a car job, but from a computer aided design job in Farmington Hills area. (Note: Farmington Hills is a suburban industrial hub home to automotive R & D centers and technology corporations, including up until recently Nissan Design, which left Michigna in January.) And while my husband and I live in Bowling Green, tons of jobs have been lost and even our store is posting such huge losses that we will be leaving to return to the military jobs we once had. FYI.
NEW YORK (AFP) — Embattled US automaker General Motors, racing to restructure to avoid collapse, plans to cut 1,600 white-collar jobs in the next 10 days, a GM spokesman said Monday.
“Starting this week, GM will write to 1,600 white collars to let them know they’ll separate by May 1,” GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson told AFP.
The layoffs are part of GM’s plan announced in February to shed 3,400 white-collar jobs this year in the United States, he said.
“We think we’ll complete most of that by May 1,” he said.
President Barack Obama’s administration has given GM until June 1 to present an aggressive restructuring plan, after the government, which has pumped 13.4 billion dollars in public aid into the nation’s biggest automaker, rejected its previous restructuring plan in late March.
GM, the former world’s leading automaker that has been reeling from an auto sales slump amid prolonged US recession, could be forced to file for a bankruptcy court-supervised restructuring if it fails to meet the federal deadline.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=32ce33c5-c411-4e1d-aa0c-b4e70829cef7)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=34abb986-58e2-4f32-8d58-2b86e8183563)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=5458ea91-f407-4e7f-9fbe-59a06a1bf110)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=aa745564-c43a-4ac3-aba0-b372159494c6)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a264834f-d401-47b6-835a-867f207392f3)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=1cf447ce-7988-411e-a83c-23f50dcd43b8)
