The Jeep plant in Ohio that Mitt Romney ran that explosive ad about in 2012 suggesting it was going to stop building Jeeps in Ohio and move to China? Jeep is still in Ohio, and Jeeps are in such high demand that workers are clocking 60 hours a week and still can’t keep up.
Chrysler plans to hire up to 1,000 part-time employees to give exhausted full-time employees a break. The launch of the new Jeep Cherokee last year and record demand for the Jeep Wrangler is leading to the need for more employees. A company spokesman said Monday that Chrysler has hired 380 temporary part-time employees this year, though 50 have been converted to regular, full-time employees. Chrysler has collected applications for all the jobs and is in the process of assessing them.
Most of the new hires will get between 10 and 30 hours per week. They’ll be paid $15.78 an hour, the same rate as new full-time hires. They’re also offered limited benefits, including health insurance. The extra help will allow the plant to run the Wrangler line every Saturday, which it hasn’t been able to do. That’s important to Chrysler, which is trying to squeeze even more Wrangler production out of the plant this year after a record year in 2013.
Plant manager Chuck Padden said Chrysler’s goal for the plant is to build 2,000 vehicles per day. Currently, employees at the Toledo assembly complex build about 840 Wranglers and 990 Cherokees per day.
