UAWTalk.com - View topic - "killing third shift" Chicago Trib article - The Unofficial Forum Where UAW Members Talk Online In Solidarity! - Free Message Board Hosting by FreePowerBoards.com

Quote:

Chrysler LLC plans to end the third shift at its Belvidere assembly plant, which could put as many as 1,000 employees out of work, a high-level United Auto Workers official told stunned members Friday.

Chrysler would not confirm the report, but rumors have been circulating for weeks that the third shift, added in July 2006, would end by Christmas. Union officials typically are advised of such plans before company announcements to workers.

A worker who attended the meeting said Garry Mason, an executive assistant to UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, shocked them by saying that sluggish sales of the three vehicles built at Belvidere -- Dodge Caliber and Jeep Compass and Patriot -- meant "the third shift was gone," as if that news was common knowledge.

There was a gasp in the room," said the worker, who asked not to be named. "Everyone was like, 'Huh?' This was the first time there had been anything official about it. It was a real eye-opener."

Another Local 1268 member who was at the meeting said Mason displayed "a deer in the headlights look" when he realized they hadn't been told. Both workers said Mason didn't say when the shift would end or how many workers would be affected.

"After that, he backpedaled and just changed the subject and talked about why the contract is so good," one said. "He just kept avoiding the subject."

Mason's statement about the third shift appeared first on a Web site forum maintained by Local 1268 members.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-sat_chrysler_1027oct27,1,6172106.story?ctrack=1&cset=true