Daimler fires top US managers

Daimler fires top US managers
REUTERS

AUBURN HILLS, MICH, NOV 21: The new German management at Chrysler, dispatched by DaimlerChrysler AG to fix its struggling US unit, put themselves more firmly behind the wheel on Monday by firing three top American executives.

Gone are Theodor Cunningham, Chrysler Group’s executive vice-president of global sales and marketing, chief administrative officer Kathleen Oswald, and Tony Cervone, head of Chrysler global communications, the world’s No 5 automaker said.

With DaimlerChrysler chairman Juergen Schrempp at Chrysler’s suburban Detroit headquarters to smooth the transition, Dieter Zetsche took over as president and chief executive officer for James Holden, who was forced out on Friday. Wolfgang Bernhard is the new chief operating officer.

Cervone’s replacement will be Ken Levy, a former spokesman for General Motors Corp in Europe, sources close to the situation said. The new Chrysler management team is scheduled to meet with about 1,000 top managers, and then later with Chrysler’s 128,000 employees worldwide in a televised address and e-mail.

The firings come amid rumors that strong measures will be taken to pull Chrysler back into profitability, including white-collar layoffs or unpaid leaves of absence, and temporary or permanent plant closures. Chrysler lost $521 million in the third quarter and the Wall Street Journal has said the unit will lose even more in the fourth quarter as well as another $2 billion next year. Officials said Chrysler vehicle inventories are no higher than its competitors’, but that hasn’t stopped rumors of plant shutdowns. No such new measures have been scheduled, a spokesman said.

At the headquarters in Auburn Hills, snow swirled around one of the largest office complexes in the United States as many of the 12,000 employees who work there wondered what might happen to them. “The rumor mill is going big time around here,” said one employee at the headquarters who asked not to be identified. “The reality is, we don’t know anything.”

Another employee, who also requested anonymity, said workers are focusing on what they control: “Everyone’s just plugging away. You can’t worry about it. You just keep working. If you did (worry), you’d Just sit at your desk and cry.”