10,000 jobs may be cut at Chrysler

Up to 10,000 Chrysler Group employees could lose their jobs, and at least three plants appear vulnerable to closure under the company's long-awaited cost-savings plan that is to be made public next week, auto insiders say.

Michigan assembly plants are not among those expected to close, but thousands of the cuts will likely include salaried or contract workers, some of them at Chrysler's Auburn Hills headquarters or at other locations around the state. Chrysler, the Auburn Hills-based arm of DaimlerChrysler AG, plans to announce its restructuring plan Feb. 14, along with its 2006 earnings.

The company lost about $1.5 billion in the third quarter of last year, and speculation has mounted ever since about the unit's future:

• Will Chrysler Chief Executive Officer Tom LaSorda lose his job?

• Will the Germans sell Chrysler?

• Will the company offer a blanket buyout package, like those used by General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co.?

The Valentine's Day announcement is not expected to be as big a blow to the Detroit region as recent cost-cutting plans by cross-town rivals Ford and General Motors, which offered buyouts last year to slash their workforces by tens of thousands of people. More at Detroit Free Press