Jeep jubilation

TOLEDOBLADE.COM - - WHEN much of the news from the domestic auto industry leaves little to celebrate, it's terrific to discover one industry development worth cheering. One of Toledo's signature corporations recently announced it was having trouble keeping up with demand for its product.

But the North Toledo Jeep plant will take that kind of problem any day of the week.

DaimlerChrysler AG's new Jeep Wrangler plant has to add some Sunday overtime shifts to help fill about 59,000 pending Wrangler orders. Employees working those rare shifts get paid double-time. For the average Chrysler worker earning $27 an hour, that means $54 an hour on Sundays. And just in time for the holidays. Some of the work will be filled by temporary workers whose regular starting pay is typically $18 an hour.

The head of Jeep's UAW Local 12 isn't thrilled that temporary help will be brought into the Toledo Jeep Assembly complex when Chrysler workers want the overtime. "We've got enough of our people to work it," said Dan Henneman. "The product should be built by the people in the plant."

But judging from the robust sales of the new Dodge Nitro and the newly redesigned 2007 Wrangler, there should be work enough to go around. As it is, Jeep customers ordering the popular four-door Unlimited Wrangler model have to wait until next year for delivery.

Besides pending Wrangler orders, there are roughly 50,000 Nitro orders that must also be filled. For more than two months Chrysler and its on-site suppliers have been working six 20-hour days a week on overtime to satisfy customer and dealer demand - and it wasn't enough.

So workers at the Jeep complex, which employs more than 4,500 people, including 1,100 hired by suppliers, will be building the fast-selling sport utility vehicles on occasional Sundays until supply catches up with demand.

With sales of the Jeep Liberty slowing, the success of the Wrangler and the Dodge Nitro presents a nice production predicament that management, labor, and all of Toledo can cheer.

Given all the problems facing Ford, General Motors, and, yes, DaimlerChrysler, Jeep is a bright beacon in an otherwise gloomy night.