Region likely to feel pain and gain

Robin Buckson / The Detroit News

DaimlerChrysler recently laid off 250 workers at its Mack I plant, which makes V-8 engines for trucks and SUVs.

At least 1 Mack Engine factory may close, but a new V-6 plant could be in the works outside Detroit.

Josee Valcourt / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- At least one of the two factories at the Chrysler Group's Mack Engine manufacturing complex on Detroit's east side is likely to close as part of a restructuring the automaker will announce Feb. 14, according to people familiar with the plan.

But Chrysler also is expected to confirm plans to build a modern engine plant in southeast Michigan to produce a new family of V-6 engines for Chrysler and Mercedes vehicles.

The expected moves show the region will reap both pain and gain from Chrysler's restructuring moves.

More than 1,200 hourly union members work at the two factories that make up the Mack Avenue complex, which Chrysler bought in 1953 and converted to engine production in 1998.

Mack I makes 4.7-liter V-8 engines and Mack II builds 3.7 V-6 engines for the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Commander, and Dodge Durango and Ram.

The Mack I plant recently laid off 250 people as production declined because of soft truck sales.

"It's going to be Mack I," predicted Joe Wisniewski, a skilled trade worker who was among the recently laid off group.

Paul Lacy, a power train analyst with Waltham, Mass.-based Global Insight Inc., agreed "that with the 4.7-liter production falling off that it's vulnerable."

The Mack complex does not make the popular Hemi engines.

United Auto Workers Local 51 President Lorenzo Poole, in a recent letter to Mack workers, said the future of the complex is at risk.

The new plant to be built outside Detroit will produce a new generation of V-6 engines under a program code-named "Phoenix."

United Auto Workers at Chrysler's Trenton engine plant voted last year to approve new work rules in an effort to convince the automaker to build the $700 million plant Downriver. Officials from other Michigan communities, Ohio and Wisconsin also have lobbied for the plant.

Chrysler settled on a location in southeast Michigan, according to people familiar with the plan.

The manufacturing process at that new plant will mirror the automaker's joint-venture engine facility in Dundee, Mich., which is operated with Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and Hyundai Motor Co.

The plant employs lean Japanese-style work rules and employs only highly trained workers.