Chrysler To Shut Down Production For A Month

They aren't waiting for the bailout.

Chrysler says it will close all 30 of its manufacturing plants for a month starting Friday.

The company needs to match production to slowing demand and conserve cash.

...Operations at the 30 plants will be idled at the end of shift on Friday, Dec. 19, and will not come back online until Jan. 19, 2009, or later.

Not sure how much, if any, of their wages the UAW folks get in situations like this but I'm guessing those roll-backs Sen. Corker was talking about are looking pretty good about now. According to this UAW members will get the month off with 95% pay. I'll be in my bunk...sobbing and reevaluating why I didn't become an autoworker.

As for the bailout, it looks like Friday might be the day.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said automakers would soon get emergency loans but the department is still asking detailed questions of automakers before it allocates any money from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. GM and Chrysler are seeking up to $15 billion in emergency aid to keep them afloat through the beginning of next year.

President Bush has signaled he'll provide money to the automakers and a decision is going to come soon.

The Treasury, however, wants to ensure that it has enough money in reserve so it can inject liquidity into banks in the remaining month the Bush Administration is in office.

"The autos will get the money as quickly as we can prudently do it," Paulson told CNBC.

Bush said Tuesday he was still considering "all options" to prevent a disorganized bankruptcy by automakers.

The Bush Administration plans to impose tough conditions -- including most of those worked out in a deal with congressional Democrats last week. They are weighing additional conditions.

"We're told that the (automakers) are teetering here or teetering there, and obviously (we're) taking in their concerns and taking in the concerns of all the stakeholders and we'll try to get this done in an expeditious way," Bush said.

Merry Christmas!

More: In checking around on this, it looks like most plants across the industry close for a week or two around this time of year for maintenance and such, so it's really an extra couple of weeks not something entirely out of the blue.

posted by DrewM. at 05:33 PM

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