Most of the people in Kenosha and Detroit never knew they were battling head-to-head-until last week, when Detroit won.
When Chrysler Corp. announced its intention to close its Kenosha auto assembly plant at the cost of 5,500 jobs, local residents expressed fear for their future and anger that Chrysler officials had misled and, some said, lied to them.
”People are crying on the lines,” said Ed Steagall, president of United Auto Workers Local 72, some 48 hours after the news hit.
But 324 miles away in Detroit, up the deeply rutted steps that lead to UAW Local 7`s office, Kenosha`s calamity was seen as a reprieve. Chrysler would shift production of its Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon subcompacts to Detroit and keep Detroit`s aged Jefferson Avenue plant going.
Before the decision, the 4,300 workers at the Jefferson Avenue plant had faced the likelihood of layoffs-at least until a nearby state-of-the-art plant is completed in 1991.
But none of the Detroit auto workers who gathered last week in the smoke- filled, red-brick union hall that was once a Lutheran school were happy to see their victory come at the expense of their counterparts in Kenosha.
”We are not in the business of taking work from our brothers,” said Aaron Taylor, 40, president of the local and a 20-year worker at the plant on Detroit`s East Side.
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In all likelihood, however, that tradeoff, and the blow that hit Kenosha last week, will be repeated many times in the next few years. Auto industry analysts predict that at least a dozen U.S. and Canadian auto plants in older manufacturing areas will close by the early 1990s as the industry comes to grips with overcapacity and Japanese carmakers open highly automated operations in the Sun Belt.
Chrysler`s Jefferson Avenue facility builds Dodge Aries and Plymouth Reliant, which Chrysler officials say they may phase out this year if demand drops.
Once word got out two years ago that the plant`s fate was uncertain, its survival became more than just an issue of saving jobs for the workers, who have an average of 24 years seniority.
It became an issue of Detroit preserving its identity as an auto manufacturer.
At the end of World War II, there were at least a dozen auto assembly plants in Detroit, said Charles Hyde, a Wayne State University history professor. Today, there are two.
So when the Jefferson Avenue plant`s demise appeared imminent, civic leaders engineered a $200 million loan-and-grant package from city, state and federal governments to help Chrysler pay for the new state-of-the-art facility, which will cost just less than $1 billion. City officials agreed to clear 637 acres and move thousands of homes and businesses.
And despite provisions that reduced union-protected job classifications to 12 from more than 100, UAW Local 7 members agreed to a seven-year contract that Chrysler said it needed to make the project work.
”We are hanging on to what we`ve got,” said Detroit City Council member Maryann Mahaffey. ”It`s essentially that.”
”I see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Charlie Ryan, a union local vice president who originally opposed the give-back contract because he didn`t think it would help his coworkers.
Meanwhile, in southeastern Wisconsin, from Polentini`s Bakery in Kenosha to a 13-employee paint shop in nearby Racine, the fight for survival is on.
”We`re going to feel it even before the plant closes because people are going to curtail spending right away,” said Joe Polentini, fearful that his 10-year-old bakery won`t survive. ”We`re all in the same boat in this town.” Chrysler`s arrival had brought an upbeat spirit to Kenosha, a community of about 77,000 between Chicago and Milwaukee. Retail sales were beginning to improve, home construction was up and houses were selling again at a brisk pace.
That mood changed markedly last week. Plant workers and local officials spoke of betrayal.
John Collins, Kenosha County executive, released partial transcripts of testimony last year before the county board by James Kilroy, manager of state relations for Chrysler.
”Our plan is for five years, and I will repeat that to you,” he told the board Oct 6. ”. . . I wish the folks would start looking at the bright side rather than the black side. Yes, we intend to build that car here at least five years.”
Kenosha County approved $410,000 in public improvements for Chrysler that included the repaving of a parking lot for new-car storage.
”I want my damn money back,” Collins said.
Chrysler maintained last week that it gave no guarantees it would keep the plant open five years. But some Kenosha workers spoke of striking before Chrysler was ready to throw them out of work this summer.
Robert Cox, 34, of Kenosha, left a pipefitting job to return to work at the auto plant last year.
”I bought a new house here,” he said. ”Now I will never get the value out of it.”
”I`ll be out on the streets,” said Roger Warden, a 27-year plant veteran. ”I`m 47 years old-just at the age where you can`t get hired anyplace. But I have to do something. I have two sons in college.”
At its peak in the mid-1960s, the Kenosha plant, then owned by American Motors Corp., had as many as 15,000 employees. But employment had dwindled to 7,200 late last year and 6,500 currently.
August Cibarich, a labor market economist for Wisconsin, estimated the Chrysler cutback will boost Kenosha County`s unemployment rate, now at 8.5 percent, to 18 percent.
Some large suppliers will continue to make components for Chrysler`s Detroit plant that won Omni and Horizon production, but many smaller suppliers are out of luck.
Precision Industrial Finishing Co., for example, which opened a small paint shop in Racine at Chrysler`s request last February, will be forced to close.
”We don`t do work for anyone else,” said Dane LaGrow, manager of the 13-employee plant.
”We`re very concerned,” said Jim Van De Loo, executive director of Kenosha Achievement Center, which trains physically and mentally handicapped workers and depended on the Chrysler plant for four-fifths of its revenue last year. As many as 120 of the trainees make headrests and armrests for Chrysler. Charities also are concerned. Chrysler and its workers donated one-third of the Kenosha County United Way`s funds in its October campaign. Not only will those dollars be missed, but demand for United Way`s services are expected to increase.
Wisconsin officials are gathering documents for use in a possible lawsuit to show that Chrysler had committed itself to keeping the Kenosha plant open for at least five years after acquiring it from American Motors last year.
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Wisconsin legislators appropriated $3 million in job retraining funds in 1986 for American Motors workers to build, on contract, Chrysler Fifth Avenues.
Chrysler used that money, but never claimed another $5 million appropriated to retrain Kenosha workers to build Omnis and Horizons.
Still, some in the business community reacted with a sense of relief, saying a Chrysler cutback was inevitable and the shock might cause officials to redouble economic development efforts.
”Maybe now we can get off our dead ends and do something about
(developing) the lakefront,” said Mike Bjorn, owner of a Kenosha clothing store.
Kenosha is banking economic development hopes on industrial parks near the airport and west of the city.
The latter park-owned by the local electric utility-just corralled its first tenant, Rust-Oleum Corp., which will build a $15 million plant and move 200 jobs from its aging Evanston plant.
But the future looks less secure for Palmen Motors, Kenosha`s Chrysler dealer. Expecting Chrysler to remain in town for five years, Palmen moved into a new, bigger facility five months ago.
Sales nearly tripled, said Roger Palmen, vice president. But with the town in an uproar over Chrysler`s decision, Palmen conceded: ”We`re in a predicament.”