First 70 Get Layoff Notice


BY LIZA BERGER
KENOSHA NEWS


In 1988, when Almena Hall was laid off from Chrysler Corp., she found work in West Palm Beach, Fla. Now, for the second time in little more than a decade, she is thinking about heading South when she gets laid off next Monday from her job as a machinist on the 4.0-liter engine line at the Kenosha Engine Plant.

``I have options,'' Hall said. ``I don't have to suffer.''

It's d'e9j'e0 vu for many workers at DaimlerChrysler's Kenosha Engine Plant. Spurred by the discontinuation of the Jeep Cherokee, one of the main vehicles Kenosha engines supply, 400 workers will be laid off starting next Monday.

The latest round of layoffs is the most significant the plant has seen since 1988 when Chrysler let go more than 5,000 workers when it closed its car and stamping operations.

The company notified 70 employees on Tuesday that their jobs will be cut, company spokesman Trevor Hale said. More than 300 workers at the Kenosha plant will be contacted within the week to discuss the possibility of early retirement. After those workers make their decisions, additional layoffs may be made.

Hale said the length of those layoffs would be determined by factors such as future vehicle sales and the effectiveness of cost-cutting measures the company has put in place.

Hall, who said she will be laid off because she has low seniority, is disappointed but not crestfallen by her repeat situation. When she left Florida she was a home health aide for older people. She plans to return to the same job.

``I wish I could keep my job, but I can't so I'll move on,'' she said as she walked into the plant before her 2:30 p.m. shift.

Details about layoffs were not answered by presstime. United Auto Workers Local 72 President John Drew said he did not want to talk about the current situation.

According to a contract negotiated between the UAW and the company, workers will receive 95 percent of their pay through 2003, the length of the contract. Benefits are a combination of unemployment benefits and union funds.
John Helminger, 45, with 26 years seniority, is confident he will keep his job at the plant --not necessarily the same job, however. Higher seniority workers will replace him as a machinist on the 4.0-liter engine line, he said.
Because he has three young children, he is concerned he will not gain as much overtime at his new position.

``People like me, we can barely get by on 40 hours (a week),'' he said.

Whatever happens, Barbara Randolph knows she can cope. With 27 years experience, she likely will not be laid off this week, but she has experienced it before, in 1988.

``I've made it before and I'll make it again,'' she said. In the last Chrysler layoff, she said she worked three jobs at one time to make up for lost pay. She also completed Gateway Technical College's two-year degree in industrial mechanics while she worked. It is important to use resources around you, she said.

``If you use your mind and your senses, it's not that bad,'' she said.