Chrysler workers rally in Kenosha to keep plant open

Talk about it

More than 300 auto workers rallied in Kenosha Monday night, booing Chrysler’s decision to close their engine plant and urging President Obama and Chrysler to reverse the move.

Gov. Jim Doyle, Kenosha’s mayor, and the county executive wrote Obama Monday, and asked that Chrysler’s bankruptcy plan be amended.

The Chapter-11 documents called for eight U.S. Chrysler plants to close next year, including Kenosha.

Instead, Chrysler agreed to build its new line of car engines in Trenton, Mich., and Saltillo, Mexico – work that had been promised to Kenosha a couple years ago.

Three other Chrysler plants are staying open in Mexico.

Doyle and the local leaders told Obama that Wisconsin workers will not understand sacrificing their jobs to a foreign plant.

At the rally, Kenosha County Executive Jim Kreuser said there’s no better stimulus package than jobs and “We want them here in Kenosha County.”

Eight-hundred people work at the Kenosha plant.

Chrysler spokesman Max Gates says a shutdown is not final, and the plant could still be sold to somebody else.

State Assembly Democrat Peter Barca of Kenosha says the recession may have hit bottom, and Chrysler might keep the plant because it will need more engines.

Union leaders gave their workers postcards to send to Obama, urging that he intervene.

Local 72 president Glenn Stark of the United Auto Workers said he was never officially told Kenosha would close.

He calls it a “betrayal to Wisconsin taxpayers.”

Tags: news, wisconsin, kenosha, chrysler, rally