NY Times: Choices Aren’t Easy for Chrysler Workers

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/29/business/29chrysler.html?hp

By NICK BUNKLEY and BILL VLASIC
Published: November 28, 2008

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — For the last month, many of the conversations at Chrysler’s headquarters campus began with a simple but emotionally charged question: “Are you staying or going?”

The historic downsizing of the Detroit automakers has already eliminated more than 100,000 factory jobs over the last three years. But at Chrysler, the day before Thanksgiving was the moment of reckoning for endangered members of its white-collar work force.

Like General Motors and the Ford Motor Company, Chrysler is cutting deep into its white-collar ranks by offering buyouts or early retirement deals to managers, engineers, financial analysts and secretaries. The company is committed to reducing its salaried staff by 25 percent, or about 5,000 employees, by the end of the year.

On Wednesday, employees filed out of the headquarters complex either with a buyout in hand on what was their last day on the job — or on their way to a holiday weekend fraught with uncertainty about Chrysler’s future.

For the thousands who accepted a buyout or early retirement package, leaving Chrysler was hardly an easy choice.

“I’ve been through previous downturns, but there was always a light at the end of the tunnel,” said Jim Burns, who had worked for Chrysler since 1976. “This time I’m not seeing any progress. I couldn’t turn it down.”

FULL story at link.