Governor meets with Chrysler’s CEO about keeping Kenosha engine plant open

Talk about it

Gov. Jim Doyle met with Chrysler’s CEO Thursday about the possibility of keeping the Kenosha engine plant open.

The governor’s office confirms that Doyle went to Chrysler’s headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich.

But it would not say much else about Doyle’s meeting with Sergio Marchionne.

Chrysler’s new owner, Fiat, has until the end of this month to decide if it wants to exercise an option to buy the Kenosha plant.

When it first filed for bankruptcy, Chrysler said it would close the facility by the end of next year, putting about 800 people out of work.

But the bankruptcy plan does not require the automaker to close Kenosha and state leaders have been trying ever since to get Chrysler to change its mind. They have especially criticized the company’s plans to build a new engine plant in Mexico to produce the same type of V-6 engines which Chrysler had earlier planned to build in Kenosha.

Tags: engine plant, wisconsin, chrysler, kenosha, governor