Report: Chrysler set to cut 1,000 salaried jobs

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Chrysler Group expects to eliminate about 1,000 white-collar jobs as part of a major restructuring to be announced Wednesday, according to a published report.

The Detroit News reports that the cut of salaried staff, which is about 7 percent of the non-union work force there, will primarily come from Michigan.

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The cuts come on top of an anticipated announcement of buyout and retirement packages intended to cut 10,000 U.S. factory workers. A cut that deep would represent about 20 percent of its union-represented work force in the United States.

The turnaround plan is expected to include plans to close two U.S. assembly lines as well.

Chrysler officials have refused to comment on their plans ahead of the Wednesday announcement by Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda. The announcement will also include 2006 earnings report by Chrysler parent DaimlerChrysler (Charts) that will include another loss at the Chrysler Group.

Chrysler Group posted a loss of $1.5 billion in the third quarter, compared to a profit of $374 million a year earlier, and a fourth-quarter loss is virtually certain after it was forced to slash production due to a glut of unsold trucks at dealers and parking lots around Detroit.

Managers at Chrysler headquarters in Auburn Hills told the paper that their departmental budgets for this year have been recalled in anticipation of the downsizing.

This is not the first cut in salaried staff at the automaker, which lost its traditional No. 3 position in terms of U.S. sales to Toyota Motor (Charts) last year. The paper reports that the current 14,180 U.S. salaried employees is down from about 19,000 at the end of 2000, or a reduction of about 25 percent.

The cuts expected to be announced at Chrysler follow similar downsizings announced in 2005 and 2006 by General Motors (Charts) and Ford Motor (Charts), which were reporting losses on their core North American auto operations those years while Chrysler was making money.

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