Chrysler to offer buyouts of up to $100,000

DETROIT — Chrysler Group will offer all 49,600 hourly workers in the U.S. up to $100,000 to leave the company as part of a recovery plan announced earlier this month.

The company, which lost $1.475 billion in 2006 and said it expects losses to continue through 2007, said on Feb. 14 that it would cut 13,000 jobs, including 11,000 hourly positions and 2,000 salaried, as it tries to further shrink itself to match reduced demand for its products.

A company document obtained by The Associated Press outlines an early retirement program for hourly workers near retirement age and a buyout program for those with at least one year of tenure with the company.

The offers were reported earlier Tuesday by The Detroit News.

Under the buyout offer, workers would receive a pretax lump-sum payment of $100,000 plus six months of medical and vision coverage in exchange for their departure.

The early retirement package includes a $70,000 payment, health care benefits and whatever pension a worker was eligible for based on age and years of service.

According to the document, the United Auto Workers union and DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group agreed on the offers, which are not as lucrative as some made to workers leaving Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. under restructuring plans.

“The offers come as Chrysler tries to reduce production by 400,000 vehicles per year.

All U.S. production workers will get the offers, including those at a plant scheduled for closure in Newark, Del.

Of the production job cuts, 9,000 are in the U.S. and 2,000 are in Canada. All the cuts will take place during the next three years. Chrysler’s 10,060 Canadian workers were given separate offers earlier this month.

The company document said that each U.S. facility would have different timing for workers to take the packages, but the timing for plants slated to lose production this year will be between April and December.