Workers fear being uprooted from jobs
PUBLISHED: March 1, 2007
In his State of the City address earlier this month, Trenton Mayor Gerald Brown confirmed that his city's biggest competition to retain their aged facility was Van Buren Township.
"It's 30 percent sure that it would come to Trenton and 70 percent sure that it wouldn't," he said at the time.
From the beginning, Trenton officials have been negotiating with the automaker to build the new facility next to the existing plant.
Originally, Chrysler had asked the city to close Van Horn Road indefinitely to make room for a 980,000-square-foot expansion of the current Trenton Engine Plant. That expansion would have eliminated nearby soccer fields and take up half of the existing parking lot.
While the city rejected that request - which was overwhelmingly opposed by Grosse Ile residents who use the road to access their island community — city officials continued negotiations.
The original plan, for example, called for a 1.2 million-square-foot expansion of the facility, but was scaled back to accommodate the city's situation, Brown said.
In a Thursday public hearing, scheduled by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, DaimlerChrysler officials announced plans for the facility, which will produce a new V-6 engine — code-named "Phoenix" — for the next generation Chrysler models that will debut in 2009.
Trenton officials were aware of the scheduled hearing weeks ago and said later they didn't think it would have a direct impact on their ongoing negotiations with the automaker.
One source close to the situation said the hearing was probably a matter of the automaker exploring all possible options for a presentation to Chrysler officials.
In fact, since the engines expected to be built at the new facility — regardless of where it's located — are scheduled to debut in 2009, a decision for the plant could come as early as next month.
The announcement comes only weeks after DaimlerChrysler's executive board announced that the Chrysler unit's workforce would see a reduction of 13,000 hourly and salaried workers in an effort to turn the sagging automaker back to profitability.
Of the approximately 9,000 hourly positions to be eliminated across the nation, none are expected to come from the Trenton facility, which currently builds 3.3, 3.8 and 4.0-liter V6 engines .
Reaction from workers
For United Auto Workers at the Trenton facility, the news is a mixed bag.
"Every time we turn around Daimler is making a decision," said Monroe resident Debbie Hanning, who has been working at the Trenton facility for 22 years.
"We've got a really good group of people (here).
"We've been put up against plants all over the world and we stand up," she said.
But when asked about Chrysler staying in Trenton, she wasn't optimistic.
"I don't think it's going to happen," she said.
For Gary Weber of Brownstown, the news has been plain confusing.
"There are so many engine plant rumors going around," he said.
"We heard that it will be built on the corner of Allen and Van Horn Road, then we heard about it going down by the quarry.
"Then we heard the possibility that it will to go Willow Run."
The 43-year veteran of the Trenton plant suggested none of this confusing news would exist if the original request from Chrysler to close Van Horn had been approved.
"The people of Grosse Ile put up such a stink.
"I don't understand why they were so discontent," he said. "They hurt a lot of people."
Brownstown reaction
As it turned out, while negotiations continued with Trenton, behind-the-scenes steps were being taken by the automaker to explore other Downriver area parcels that could house the new state-of-the-art engine plant — including a 400-acre site in Brownstown Township.
Some officials saw the Brownstown site — located on the west side of Telegraph Road between Sibley and King — as the best choice to keep the automaker Downriver, if it couldn't expand in Trenton.
Of the 400 acres in Brownstown, which is owned by Downriver industrialist Leonard Fritz, 130 acres would have been developed for the new Chrysler factory, with 20 acres being filled in to create the plant's construction site.
In the application, the Brownstown site was rejected primarily because of the potential impact on the unique "lakeplain prairie" grasslands found on the 400 acres.
This type of prairie is considered a rarity by state environmentalists, and is listed as such by the Michigan Natural Features Inventory.
However, a source close to the issue said the construction of a manufacturing plan on the site would not only leave the prairie alone, but would actually ensure its long-term protection.
According to the source, who asked not to be identified, the development could have eventually led to the township taking ownership of the prairie and protecting it "for generations."
The fact is, the source said, locating the plant in Brownstown "did not have the impact on the environment they were claiming."
"Only 72 percent of the Van Buren site will be preserved," the source said, "but in Brownstown, 84 percent would have been preserved — even though more acreage would actually have been filled in."
The township's long-term concern is that if the Brownstown site remains undeveloped or encourages more dense development, the prairie's future would be jeopardized.
"If lake plain prairie grass isn't maintained, it will go away," the source said. "By developing the site, the grassland would have been preserved."
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