Around 300 auto workers rallied in Kenosha Monday night, booing Chrysler's decision to close their engine plant and urging President Obama and the company to reverse the move. Governor Jim Doyle, Mayor Keith Bosman and County Executive Jim Kreuser wrote Obama and asked that the automaker's bankruptcy plan be amended.
The Chapter-11 documents called for eight US Chrysler plants to close next year, including Kenosha. Instead, Chrysler agreed to build its new line of car engines in Trenton, Michigan and Saltillo, Mexico work that had been promised to Kenosha a couple years ago.
Governor Doyle and the local leaders told the President that Wisconsin workers will not understand sacrificing their jobs to a foreign plant. The letter conceded that the Obama administration has "difficult" decisions to make but asked for fairness and notes that three plants in Mexico are staying open.
Chrysler spokesman Max Gates says a shutdown is not final, and the Kenosha plant could still be sold to somebody else.
Wisconsin officials were informed last week about Chrysler not planning to keep Kenosha open, news they say came out of the blue, and counter to what they'd been led to believe by company officials.