Called

[CHIMO]

Playing both ends against the middle!

Chrysler CEO sounds warning on Canadian labour costs

Chrysler Group LLC chief executive officer Sergio Marchionne outlined the key issue he wants addressed: the higher costs of assembling vehicles at the company’s Canadian plants compared with its U.S. operations.

“You cannot have all things. You cannot have a strong currency, you cannot have an uncompetitive wage rate and then expect Chrysler or all the other car makers to keep on making cars in this country and be disadvantaged,” Mr. Marchionne said Tuesday in Toronto.

The high value of the Canadian dollar has made Canada one of the most expensive countries in which to assemble vehicles, and long-standing competitive advantages – such as taxpayer-financed health care – were eliminated during the 2008-2009 crisis that drove the old Chrysler and General Motors Corp. into bankruptcy protection.

Hourly labour costs in Canada that are now higher than those in the United States will have to be addressed in the negotiations with the CAW, he said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-news/chrysler-ceo-sounds-warning-on-canadian-labour-costs/article2244715/

Fiat boss urges CBI: keep UK factories open

The boss of Italian carmaker Fiat warned manufacturers on Monday against undermining their home markets by exporting production and jobs.

Sergio Marchionne's point, made in a speech to the CBI's annual conference, was that businesses should think twice before subcontracting to a factory in China or Malaysia when the going gets a little tough and margins are squeezed.

Businesses as much as governments need a strong manufacturing base in their home country, he said. This was the case for Fiat in Italy and its US subsidiary Chrysler in the US. Both arms of his empire had a moral obligation, one that also plays to the long-term benefit of business. In other words, a moral obligation that happily also brings with it sustainable profits.

"An economy that forsakes manufacturing to focus on financial and other services depletes itself. It loses workers, its skills base is eroded, and it sacrifices economic stability. All precious resources that, once they have disappeared, are very difficult to rebuild," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics-blog/2011/nov/21/fiat-boss-keep-factories-open

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