Good luck cutting a deal on a minivan or Pacifica. I've heard that anyone ordering anything off the line won't get it before the end of the year...
CNN is also quoting the story:
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Company sources say the U.S. armed forces have ordered 19,000 minivans and 5,000 Pacificas for use as light-duty vehicles in the U.S., Iraq and elsewhere in the world. It is believed the light gasoline-powered vehicles will replace the diesel-powered Humvees in use as light personnel carriers on U.S. bases around the world to reduce fuel consumption.
The U.S. military has been increasingly concerned about fuel consumption in recent years, and its commanders have complained publicly that the diesel-guzzling Humvee is extremely inefficient in non-combat use to ferry a few soldiers at a time around base.
Ten thousand of the minivans -- all gold-coloured -- will be built at the Chrysler Group's St. Louis assembly plant, 9,000 at the Windsor plant. Windsor is the sole source of the Pacifica, so its employees get to fill the lion's share of the order, 14,000 vehicles.
Asked about the huge order this week, Frank Ewasyshyn, executive vice-president of manufacturing for DaimlerChrysler, would only grin and say that "Sales are great."
Asked to confirm that the Windsor plant and its suppliers have been told they will be working double time on Monday and every Saturday until the shutdown in mid July in order to fill the military order, Ewasyshyn kept grinning and saying: "sales are great. We're running full tilt."
The company does not comment on overtime shifts scheduled more than one week in the future.
Buzz Hargrove, president of the CAW, said he hadn't heard of the order before leaving Canada for Vienna, Austria on Thursday. "But if Frank (Ewasyshyn) says that, then it must be true. And if it's true that's great news," he said.
Word of the large order spread among Windsor Chrysler employees on May
- The plant started producing the first of the order in the framing shop on May 14. The minivans are said to be "regular minivans with a few upgrades," according to one source.
Supervisors had been trying to line up enough workers for three eight-hour shifts on Friday, three six-hour shifts today and two shifts Monday.
Today's shift pays time-and-a-half, one worker said, but the Friday and Monday shifts pay triple time because autoworkers traditionally get four days off for the Victoria Day weekend.
"They say the U.S. government has put their down payment on the vehicles and we're building 'em already," said a plant source whose information is usually reliable. "They're supposed to be going to Iraq as taxis and stuff."
"This is great for us going into negotiations," the plant worker said. "If you ordered a van right now, you'd have to wait for an '06 because we've got so many orders."
Not all Windsor DCX employees were pleased about the overtime, however. "Happy bloody Fathers' Day," one unhappy worker e-mailed The Windsor Star this week. "Out of 30 days in June, 28 are now scheduled," the unnamed worker complained.
But another line operator, who asked not to be named, said he isn't complaining because the extra hours are "all voluntary."
He said supervisors were also canvassing to find enough volunteers to allow shifts to run on two Sundays next month, June 5 and June 19. "They'll probably get their numbers," the worker said.