Chrysler Shuts Down All Production for at Least a Month!

[Horserider]

http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/17/autos/chrysler_shutdown/

Uh oh is all I'm going to say.

[Remali]

I heard about that today.....things are bad all over.

[HoustonFarrier]

It is normal for the automakers to shut down over the holidays, normally for 1-2 weeks. Chrysler is making it a month, as would be expected in these times. A smart person would be able to handle this easily, if they live within their means, and keep 4-6 months of salary in liquidity (saving accounts) to hold them over hard times. I think it's a wise thing to do. It's buying them TIME...which is the most important thing they need right now.

Steve

[twofingers]

the workers are being paid so it is really no big deal to them just more "easy money" I believe it is a political move and great news story - oh my gawd Chrysler shuts down plants lay off thousands - and as steve pointed out they shut down anyway this time of year. Up here boeng (sp) does the same thing.

[mare]

Yeah, I think it's being over-played by the media and I think the car companies are hoping to panic us into supporting a bailout. My sis who just took early retirement from Chrysler has always had a mandatory two weeks off. So did the plants.

My brother who left Ford a couple months ago worked at the Indpls. International (diesel)plant (part of Ford). It went from 1,400 employees to 70 some time back and has been shut down for months and months.

It's hard to sort out what is real and accurate and what is pure malarkey or spin.

[Equine_Woman]

Bell has a mandatory 2 weeks off to every year with pay. Although this year they made them use one day of vacation to cover the 2nd of January. But I am glad we don't work at Chrysler.

And it would be nice to have 4-6 months in the bank but due to life we've got nothing. My husband developed epilepsy almost 2 years ago and lost his job. Took many months to get another and we went through what meager stores we had and ran up our credit cards just to survive. Now we just barely cover our bills each pay check. But it will get easier as his income goes up (cause he got a much better job) and hopefully I'll be able to supplement some on the weekends with my photography business. Anyways. I have nothing really of value to add to the discussion, just felt like chiming in.