St. Paul Twin Cities Ford Plant

Save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant

Sisters and Brothers;

Unless we act together the Ford Plant will close soon and two thousand jobs will go down the drain and into the river with it.

It will take the initiative of community activists and rank and file activists from your plant working together to save the Ford Plant and two-thousand jobs. It will require activity on a variety of levels from a variety of partners working in coalition.

I would encourage you to ask the UAW leadership of your local (UAW Local 879) to push the MN DFL to reconsider the legislation Democratic Senator Metzen dropped the ball on after Representative Tom Rukavina successfully pushed it through his Committee in the House. It is important that this Plant and Dam remain intact as one unit.

As you know, the great “free market forces” of capitalism have not been able to keep this perfectly good plant in operation.

This leaves us but one option; the option of Public Ownership. Public Ownership has been used all over the world to save many plants and even entire industries. The New Flyer Bus Plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba is one such example.

To be quite frank, our primary concern has to be with saving these two-thousand jobs. The jobs of those presently employed and for generations to come.

No one is considering the tremendous struggle and sacrifice of Ford workers and your union in securing a good place to work as part of the investment. No one is talking about the huge investment taxpayers have made in this Plant and Hydro Dam… not to mention training employees. No one mentions that workers create all wealth and as such are entitled to participate as equals in the decision-making process. The Ford Motor Company never sat down and talked about the future of this plant with workers or tax-payers.

I ask you to take these resolutions to your party precinct caucus meetings in February. Ford workers are scattered all over, even in Wisconsin… we need to reach out for support in order to save this plant. Just clip one of these resolutions to the resolution form.

Resolution #1 (Short Version) 0n the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant/Hydro Dam and 2,000 Union Jobs

Whereas Ford Motor Company has stated its intent to close the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, sell the hydro dam to a foreign corporation, and displace two-thousand workers in the near future without consultation from the workers, the community, or local and state governments;

Whereas this plant, its operations, and the hydro dam have received continued support from every level of government including tax-payer funding, tax-breaks and tax abatements under promises to maintain manufacturing operations and with assurances workers would have job security in St. Paul, Minnesota;

Therefore be it resolved public ownership should be used to save this plant, hydro dam, and two-thousand jobs.

Resolution #2 (Full version) 0n the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant/Hydro Dam and 2,000 Union Jobs

Whereas Ford Motor Company has stated its intent to close the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, sell the hydro dam to a foreign corporation, and displace two-thousand workers in the near future without consultation with the workers, the community, or local and state governments;

Whereas this plant, its operations, and the hydro dam have received continued support from every level of government including tax-payer funding, tax-breaks and tax abatements under promises to maintain manufacturing operations and with assurances workers would have job security in St. Paul, Minnesota;

Whereas this Plant forms an important an integral component of Minnesota’s industrial base;

Whereas the closing of this Plant will cause very significant economic harm to the local community and the state including placing a strain on already overburdened social services which have already been drastically cut back;

Whereas all conciliatory efforts, as demanded, in favor of the management of Ford Motor Company have been granted by all levels of government under the promise Ford would maintain operations in St. Paul;

Whereas a similar threatened plant closing of the New Flyer Plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada during the 1970’sresulted in all levels of government intervening on behalf of the members of the United Automobile Workers union resulting in the public takeover of the operation with continuing successful operation at present;

Whereas “the free market” has not resulted in a solution to save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, the hydro dam which powers the plant along with two-thousand union jobs; (over please)

Be it resolved that the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party instruct its State Legislative Caucus to bring forward the previous resolution in the form of legislation supported by the United Auto Workers Union and its members of Local 789 to save the plant and dam intact until a solution is found to continue operations and production;

Be it further resolved that the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party instructs all of its federal, state, and local Twin Cities elected officials to convene a special conference to explore public ownership as the remedy to saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, the hydro dam, and two thousand union jobs;

Be it further resolved that the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party support public ownership and democratic control of the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant with production taking place in the best interests of the workers and the people of the State of Minnesota;

Be it further resolved that public ownership is the only viable means of saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant as all other means have been tried and exhausted;

Be it further resolved that funding is not an issue since any country which can squander billions of dollars on the occupation of Iraq can find the resources for saving this Plant, dam, and jobs;

Be it further resolved that the very significant burden of health care costs for employees be resolved through the State of Minnesota enacting legislation implementing single-payer, universal health care.

Alan L. Maki
Member, Minnesota DFL State Central Committee

and

Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

If you have friends working in casinos please have them get in touch with me.

Twenty-thousand Minnesotans go to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under tribal, state or federal labor laws.

58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Check out my blog; it’s where rank and file activists go for information:

Thoughts From Podunk:

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Suggestions for how to use these resolutions:

• Take it to your precinct caucus meeting

• Get your union or community organization to support this resolution

• Write a letter to your state legislators supporting this resolution

• Copy and distribute this resolution widely

• Use this resolution as a petition, ask your friends to sign it

• Write a letter to the editor

• Blog this issue

• Post the resolution on web sites

• Discuss this resolution on Internet “list serves”


**************

This leaflet made as a contribution in kind by the:
Iron Range Rank and File Labor Network… concerned and involved members of USW Locals 1938, 2705, 6860, 2660

All labor and materials for this leaflet have been contributed in solidarity with workers of the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant… On the Iron Range we understand the future of our jobs hinge on the future of your jobs. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Alan Maki for taking up this struggle in his capacity as a member of the MN DFL State Central Committee. Without these kinds of community grassroots and rank and file outreach efforts we are all doomed as recent contract “negotiations” in our industries have demonstrated.

Please consider making a contribution to help us put this issue on the front burner where it belongs.

Out of sight… is out of mind.

Class Struggle

From: Alan Maki [mailto:amaki000@centurytel.net]

Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2007 8:40 AM

Subject: RE: [Working-Class] Re: How the ruling class rules...

I challenge myself and all of us on this list to unleash of creative imaginations -- even at the risk of sounding completely utopian at first blush -- to break this most oppressive chain.



Tommy

What would you propose be done?



It seems to me we need to be creative in approaching those steps which are required for social change… education, organization, unity in action; without these three things being worked at simultaneously things will stay the same. This may sound old and tired but it has been the formula for change… there is no getting around this “don’t mourn, organize.”



It is easy to brand something like the present UAW contracts as “sell outs;” it is quite another thing to develop struggles that take labor in another direction.



I propose we all take a good hard look at the Ford contract and what it means to us all… and, make no mistake; this contract will impact all of us in one way or another from a number of perspectives. Health care is one. Using the threat of plant closures to blackmail workers, the communities and states where these plants are located is another. The alternative to these “sell outs” is to advocate something else AND initiate struggle.



The “creativity” you seek will come in the process of participating in the budding and developing struggles in opposition to these “sell outs.”



Has anyone taken the time to read the UAW’s statement on the Ford contract?



Here it is again: http://media.freep.com/pdf/ford_hourly.pdf see page 21



Please note the section on the joint UAW-Ford health care initiative. Obviously the UAW leadership plans on selling us out on the health care issue the same way they sold out Ford workers (and GM and Chrysler) in contract negotiations. If the UAW pushes for anything other than single-payer, universal health care Congressman John Conyers will drop his advocacy of HR 676 as quickly as he dropped plans to impeach Bush and Cheney and we will have to wait for Kucinich to get back from his interplanetary UFO experience for action on this.



The contract overview declares the creation of, under the heading on page 21 “National Institute of Health Care Reform” and states:

The UAW and Ford have agreed to an unprecedented commitment to im-

prove the affordability, accessibility and accountability of the U.S. health care

system, including the pursuit of a lasting solution to our national health care

cost crisis.



The parties have agreed to create the National Institute for Health Care

Reform that will serve as a premier research and educational health care reform

center dedicated to understanding, evaluating and developing thoughtful and

innovative reform to improve the medical delivery system in the United States

and expand access to high-quality, affordable and accountable health care

coverage for all Americans.



Ford has committed to five annual $1 million contributions to fund the

Institute.

This presents a very real danger to the single-payer universal health care movement intended to deliver labor into the Hillary Clinton fold.



I would encourage everyone to take a good hard look at how the UAW leadership worked with the Ford Motor Company to continue using the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant as part of this sell-out as part of an elaborate blackmail scheme (This is included in the UAW overview). Those who continue to say this plant closure issue is a “done deal” rather than viewing it in the context of the entire class collaborationist sell out and capitulation to the automotive industry are themselves failing to understand what is taking place and they are withdrawing from the class struggle.



Alan L. Maki

58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432

Cell phone: 651-587-5541

E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net



Check out my blog:



Thoughts From Podunk



http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Ford Contract and the Ford St. Paul Twin Cities Assembly Plant

Betrayal by U.A.W. leadership; betrayal by the MN DFL

-----Original Message-----

From: Alan Maki [mailto:amaki000@centurytel.net]

Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 1:43 AM

To: 'Charles Underwood'

Cc: 'David Shove'

Subject: Interesting article; for being such a "done deal" the sad saga of the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant continues on... as does the class struggle to save this plant and the dam

“The summary also says that Ford will not sell or close any plants beyond three facilities that already have been identified — Twin Cities Assembly in St. Paul, Minn., and Cleveland Casting and Batavia Transmission in Ohio.
But the union was able to win one-year extensions for Twin Cities and Cleveland casting.”

This raises an important question: Can a struggle for public ownership waged by workers, the local community, and state and local governments save the plant and create even more jobs?

What will it take? First, a citizen’s committee needs to be established to counter the efforts of the Ford Site Planning Committee. Ford rank and file workers need to be brought into the struggle along with community activists and concerned citizens. Letters to the editors, leaflets, door-to-door work, meeting around kitchen tables and in coffee shops; meetings with state and local politicians in their offices.

Since the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party refuses to take up this struggle other political allies should be sought. We need to find out the positions of Mike Cavlan and Cynthia McKinney on the Ford Plant issue. This should become a national and international issue. There shouldn’t be any organization or individuals we don’t reach out to.

We also need to get the issue of public ownership of the Ford Plant and dam as a primary issue in DFL precinct caucuses… all caucus participants should be made aware of the Senate Committee betrayal on this issue… we need a general purpose leaflet that can be taken into each precinct caucus with the same resolution to be voted on. Press releases citing this campaign need to be developed.

We don’t need to beg the DFL or any other Party to take up this issue… what we need to do is develop a well coordinated state-wide campaign on this issue… since we don’t have the resources to campaign statewide on this issue alone, we should combine and bundle this issue as part of a “progressive package” that takes in other issues ranging from ending the war in Iraq, preventing war with Iran, single-payer/universal health care, rights for casino workers, a real living wage tied to the figures of the U.S. Department of Labor, an end to home foreclosures, an end to the robbery at the pumps and global warming.

We need to end all procrastinating on this issue… since efforts to make saving the Ford Plant and dam a single issue as would be most effective… the only way we can mount a successful campaign is to bundle this issue with other issues and present Minnesotans with a clear example of what we expect progressive politicians to support. We should urge Minnesotans not to vote for any candidate who won’t sign on to the entire package… this is the only way for working people to flex their political muscle. We should make a list of what candidates not to vote for.

Distributing a couple hundred thousand leaflets of this nature in the weeks leading up to the 2008 Elections can have a big impact… too darn bad who suffers.

In pushing for this kind of bundled program inside and outside the Democratic Party we move progressive politics in a new direction. It is these issues… not the Party, not the individual politician; we should be seeking to frame these issues with real solutions. If those claiming to be progressive can’t support such a progressive agenda, it is time to say we aren’t going to support them.

Of course there is always the option of supporting alternatives to the two Party system by taking initiatives like Cindy Sheehan, Cynthia McKinney, and Mike Cavlan have done. A multi choice electoral system based upon real issues aimed at improving the life of working people is what needs to be considered… not who is the “lesser evil.” The “danger from the right” perspective has now become a pathetic excuse for failing to take the class struggle into the political arena.

We should start with calling for the defeat of each and every member of the Senate Committee who refused to vote for the legislation aimed at saving the Ford Plant and Dam beginning with the Chair of the Committee James P. Metzen who had sole responsibility in pushing this legislation through his Committee. It is simply shameful that the media did not provide coverage of how this DFL betrayal of all working people in Minnesota went down. Metzen needs to be punished at the polls. Get out your Legislative Manuals… check out Senate District 39… lets run a candidate/s committed to a “bundled” progressive platform in the DFL primary, the Republican Primary and have someone ready to run on the Green Party ticket and as an independent and even as a write-in candidate if need be. We have options, let’s show we progressives aren’t afraid to exercise those options.

The time has come for working people to be completely active in the decision making process… and this doesn’t mean just voting for those candidates selected by a few well-heeled political hacks committed only to the business interests of the Summit Hill Club, the DFL Business Caucus, and the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce.

Life has demonstrated that the closing and demolition of the St. Paul Ford Assembly Plant and selling off the hydro dam to a foreign corporation while politicians pathetically and with demagoguery call for “an end to foreign domination of energy resources” as they allow a hydro plant to be taken over by a foreign multi-national energy corporation which will then turn around and gouge the very tax-payers who have subsidized this hydro generating facility for over 80 years just like the robbery at the pumps is allowed to go unchecked by the Democratic Party.

Again, we need a “bundled” progressive agenda… either politicians support it or they don’t. Given the very tight and close races it becomes very easy to defeat candidates by campaigning against them… and, these politicians will have to consider whether or not they are going to spend big money only to be defeated by a few cheap leaflets.

“Minnesota nice” just doesn’t cut it… it sure hasn’t saved the Ford Plant and dam.


Related News


• Ford agrees to halt plant closures in union contract
AFP - 4 hours ago

• Ford Warns of New Steps if Sales Decline
New York Times - 4 hours ago

• Ford Workers to Vote on Tentative Pact
The Associated Press - 4 hours ago

UAW Leaders Recommend Ford Contract

By TOM KRISHER and DEE-ANN DURBIN – 7 hours ago

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Local union presidents and bargaining chairs have unanimously voted to recommend approval of a tentative four-year contract between Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers, a union local official said Monday.

Bruce Yates, bargaining chairman at Local 2000 at an assembly plant in Avon Lake, Ohio, said the deal was recommended by a voice vote.

A summary of the contract posted on the union's Web site shows that the Ford contract is similar to deals ratified by workers at General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.

Ford will contribute $13.2 billion to a union-run trust that will pick up much of the company's $22 billion in retiree health care liabilities. The company also will pay $2.2 billion for retiree health care until the trust takes effect in January 2010.

A typical UAW worker at Ford will get $12,904 worth of economic gains over the life of the contract, including a $3,000 signing bonus and lump-sum payments of 3 percent in the second year, 4 percent in the third year and 3 percent in the fourth year, according to the summary.

GM workers won similar bonuses with total gains of $13,056, while Chrysler workers are to receive $10,235.

The summary also said that the UAW won commitments from the company to build five new flexible body shops at assembly plants, as well as a $200 million commitment to invest in new technology and equipment at stamping plants and substantial investments at Ford powertrain operations.

The summary also says that Ford will not sell or close any plants beyond three facilities that already have been identified — Twin Cities Assembly in St. Paul, Minn., and Cleveland Casting and Batavia Transmission in Ohio.

But the union was able to win one-year extensions for Twin Cities and Cleveland casting.

Another key provision of the contract gives the UAW a voice in future Ford product and manufacturing decisions. Bob King, UAW vice president and director of its Ford department, will serve on the company's Manufacturing Operating Committee "where critical decisions are made about current operations and future product," the summary says.

After explaining the deal to the local union officials, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger called the contract a "great agreement," and said no layoffs are expected at Ford.

"At this time we don't anticipate any additional cuts," he said.

About 54,000 UAW members at Ford will vote on the historic pact beginning Wednesday, with some workers skeptical of its job security guarantees in light of layoffs that Chrysler announced shortly after workers there ratified a new contract with the company. Voting is scheduled to be completed the following Monday.

Ford had announced plans to shut down 16 North American factories as part of a restructuring. The company has identified only 10 of the closures, and two of the remaining six to be shuttered were to be assembly plants. But no further closings will take place during the contract, which expires in 2011, the summary said.
Industry analysts have speculated that five U.S. Ford assembly plants were among those in danger of being part of the two closed by the company.

Added investment in the U.S. plants is contingent on the company and union agreeing on local deals to make or keep the plants competitive with Japanese rivals, two people with knowledge of the deal said. The people asked not to be identified because the contract has not been ratified by the union.

In exchange for the investments, Ford will be allowed to pay lower wages to thousands of new hires. New hires for entry level jobs will be paid a starting rate of $14.20 per hour. Such jobs can be up to 20 percent of Ford's UAW work force, according to the summary.

The two-tier wage scale is similar to provisions already agreed to in contracts with GM and Chrysler.

Ford has said the deal allows it to move its estimated $22 billion in retiree health care obligations to a union-run trust. The company did not say how much it will have to contribute to the trust. GM and Chrysler have similar agreements in their contracts.

Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, would not comment on specifics of the deal, but at a meeting with reporters Monday to preview new vehicles, said it is fair to all parties.

He would not say if any layoffs would quickly follow ratification of the deal like those at Chrysler and GM, but said Ford would adjust its factory capacity to make sure it meets market demand.

Ford is financially the weakest of the Detroit Three automakers, having lost more than $12 billion last year. The company has mortgaged its assets — including its blue oval logo — to fund turnaround efforts and has been rapidly losing overall U.S. market share, from 26 percent in the early 1990s to about 15 percent this year. It is using less than 80 percent of its U.S. plant capacity.

Tom Krisher reported from Detroit.

Source: Associated Press



Alan L. Maki
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Check out my blog:

Thoughts From Podunk

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

SWIFT, SEVERE RETRENCHMENT

I am doing something a little different here because this article from the Detroit Free Press raises many very important points and issues of concern, not only for autoworkers, but the entire working class.

I would like for you, after reading this article, to e-mail me your comments to be posted.

I will be posting my comments after a few days.

I hope people will check back to this blog often as this discussion about the issues in this article unfolds.

Also, if you have some recommendations for suggested reading material which you think will enable us to better understand what is taking place, please provide the title and author and where the reading material can be obtained. If from the Internet, please provide a link.

My intent here is to turn this into kind of an Internet based rank-and-file working class think tank which will lead us into some kind of activity and action.

Please consider providing your family, friends, neighbors and co-workers with the link to this blog; simply write the link down on a piece of paper and hand it to them, do a print out, send them an e-mail, or post a link to this blog from your blog or website.

I would encourage you to initiate discussions on this article with people you associate with.

My e-mail address is: amaki000@centurytel.net

Additional articles on this issue can be found here:

http://capitalismandmarkets.blogspot.com/

Yours in the struggle,

Alan


SWIFT, SEVERE RETRENCHMENT

Link to article which is reprinted below in its entirety:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071102/BUSINESS01/711020321

Chrysler slicing 1 in 3 jobs

Owner, UAW see little choice with economy, observers say

November 2, 2007

BY JUSTIN HYDE

FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

Here's one way to describe the depth of the problems at Chrysler LLC: close to one in three.

That's roughly the chances a Chrysler worker has seen his or her job targeted for elimination in the last nine months, between the 12,100 reductions of hourly, salaried and contract workers announced Thursday and the 13,000 cuts launched in February.

Even by the standards of Detroit's troubled auto industry, it's a high toll. And with half of the 10,000 hourly jobs targeted in Michigan, it will deal yet another punch to a staggering state economy.

The cuts will bring Chrysler's total employment down to as low as 57,300 by 2009, from its level of 82,400 at the end of 2006. Detroit's auto industry as a whole has announced about 145,000 job cuts in the United States and Canada since 2005, and the ripple effect has pushed Michigan's unemployment rate to the highest in the nation at 7.5% in September.

Industry observers say new owner Cerberus Capital Management and Chrysler's workforce have little choice but to retrench in the face of a slowing economy and product missteps if the remaining two out of three workers want hope for the future.

Chrysler "can survive, and they can make money," said Gerald Meyers, former chairman of American Motors. "But they have to cut themselves down to size and align themselves with someone else around the world."

In an e-mail to employees Thursday, Chrysler Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bob Nardelli said the automaker had underestimated how fast the U.S. economy would weaken after the February plan was unveiled, because of the meltdown of the housing market and spiking oil prices. The company has lowered its estimates of industry sales to 16 million this year, down from 17.2 million, and expects a similar pace for much of 2008.

"We must position Chrysler to return to profitability next year without pushing unprofitable volumes of product through our plants and into our dealers' showrooms or fleet," Nardelli said in the e-mail, a copy of which was obtained by the Free Press.

"This would only lead to a downward spiral of higher incentives, weaker brands, lower residual values and poor relationships with our dealers."

Ever since the merger of Daimler-Benz AG and Chrysler Corp. in 1998, Chrysler has struggled to find a stable niche in the U.S. auto industry, as waves of managers arrived to cut back ambitious yet unprofitable plans for growth, only to replace them with new ones a few years later.

The Auburn Hills automaker has wrestled for much of the last year to limit its incentives and sprawling fields of unsold vehicles as foreign automakers gained more ground in a declining U.S. market. Sales results released Thursday showed Chrysler's U.S. market share shrank to 11.8% in October, down from 13.1% a year earlier, as the company sold 3.5% fewer vehicles through October than a year earlier.

Some workers said they weren't surprised by the moves, even though they came a few days after the UAW lobbied hard for approval of a new contract, in part by touting its job guarantees. UAW contracts allow job cuts on slow sales.

At Jefferson North Assembly, where about 1,000 jobs are to be cut and the Detroit plant taken down to a single shift, high fuel prices have cut sharply into demand for the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Jeep Commander workers build there. Given the sales results, rumors had circulated for months about a shift cut.

"We knew there was an end of the road somewhere," said Eddie Gordish, a skilled-trades worker at Jefferson North.

But Myers said the cuts could make workers at Ford Motor Co., who are still negotiating a new contract, look more skeptically at any promise of job security from the company and the union.

"There will be a level of distrust that will be introduced into the Ford negotiations that wasn't there before," he said.

As expected, the cuts made Thursday run throughout the company's factories. In addition to Jefferson North, shifts are to disappear at three other assembly plants, including Sterling Heights, eliminating about 4,700 workers. The remainder of the hourly jobs will be shed from other plants, including stamping and engine plants, with 4,500 of the cuts yet to be assigned.

Most of the reductions are to take place in the first half of next year.

The automaker also said it is culling four slow-selling models from its lineup over the 2008 model year: the Chrysler Pacifica and Crossfire, the PT Cruiser convertible and the Dodge Magnum. It also calls for Chrysler to shed about 2,100 salaried and contract jobs before the end of the year.

Chrysler spokesman Mike Aberlich said hourly workers would be offered buyouts and early retirements under the company's agreements with the UAW, which provide up to 48 weeks of unemployment assistance.

The moves had "nothing to do with the contract," Aberlich said. "When you make these sort of calls, you have to move as quickly as you can."

The UAW had no comment on the changes. Canadian Auto Workers President Basil (Buzz) Hargrove called the decision "horrible, horrible news" that would create ripple effects hurting thousands of additional jobs in Canada beyond Chrysler.

U.S. Rep. Candace Miller, R-Harrison Township, called the move "a shame," while Illinois' senators called on the Department of Labor to help displaced workers.

But with the UAW contract and the job cuts, the outlines of Cerberus' plans for the automaker over the next few years have become clearer. Chrysler said Thursday that it has committed to spending $15 billion on U.S. products, plants and engineering through 2011, and noted it would launch four vehicles next year, including two hybrid SUVs.

While Chrysler has marked a few of its factories for extinction, such as the Newark, Del., plant that builds the Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen, it also has pledged to keep its remaining factories open through the life of the UAW contract. The company said Thursday that it would restore a shift at Jefferson North in 2010 when it launches the next generation of its SUVs.

Experts said the cuts show Cerberus is willing to move quickly, especially to fix Chrysler's cash flow. Chrysler needs the cash to fund new products and the $8.8-billion pledge to the UAW for retiree health care.

Contact JUSTIN HYDE at 202-906-8204 or jhyde@freepress.com. Business writers Jewel Gopwani, Katie Merx and Sarah A. Webster contributed to this report.