Chrysler scraps Sat. overtime shift at minivan plant
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DETROIT -- Chrysler Group canceled a Saturday overtime shift at its minivan assembly plant in Windsor, Ontario, due to parts shortages.
The company didn't disclose which parts were in short supply and it wasn't clear if future Saturday shifts would be eliminated.
"Saturday overtime is discretionary, so I can’t speculate on future plans," Chrysler Canada spokeswoman LouAnn Gosselin wrote in an e-mail to Automotive News. "As for this Saturday’s overtime cancellation, we don’t provide supplier detail."
The Windsor plant builds the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans along with Volkswagen's Routan minivan. It produces about 1,500 minivans per day across three shifts and employs about 4,600 hourly workers.
The plant was forced to shut down briefly on April 30 after workers from instrument panels supplier Dakkota Integrated Systems went on strike.
Chrysler also temporarily cut output at the plant and adopted rotating layoffs last October because of a shortage of engines that are built across the U.S.-Canadian border in suburban Detroit.
The shortage caused the company to run two shifts rather than three at the minivan plant.
U.S. sales of the Grand Caravan have risen 26 percent this year to 58,063 through May, and Town & Country deliveries have advanced 24 percent to 48,830. Routan sales are down 22 percent to 3,965 units over the same five-month period.
The Windsor Star newspaper reported the company's plans earlier today.
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