My old employer, a HUGE auto supplier, has declared bankruptcy.

http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080203/NEWS03/802030668/1004/news03
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120191689484637205.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

By JEFFREY MCCRACKEN and TERRY KOSDROSKY
February 1, 2008 9:59 p.m.

Plastech Engineered Products Inc., one of the country's largest minority-owned auto suppliers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Friday evening in Michigan., after efforts to negotiate a bailout package from customers apparently faltered.

Plastech was dealt a blow Friday when Chrysler LLC canceled its purchase orders with the $1.3 billion maker of plastic auto parts like center consoles.
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Chrysler spokesman Kevin Frazier said the automaker, which was Plastech's fourth-largest customer, also began to take their tooling out of Plastech plants.

Like other auto suppliers who have filed for Chapter 11, Plastech was caught between rising costs and falling demand for the products in which its parts are used. The cost of plastic, dependent on an oil-based resin, increases along with oil prices. Detroit's auto makers typically have resisted paying more for a part and have instead insisted on lower prices over the life of a supply contract.

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Normally, I'm not too opposed to gloating, but having a lot of friends still at PLASTECH, this is very bittersweet.

True, they did me VERY dirty, to the point that I'm skirting the brink of a (very small) settlement agreement by saying that. But I worked with people there through boom, buyout and bust, and it's a sad comment on the condition of the country that these hard working people are going to hit the streets in an already badly stressed state and city.

If any of them were closer to where I am now, I'd already be making calls, trying to get people jobs.

Where those pesky environmental laws can be disregarded, not to mention fair labor standards can be ignored. If we had tariffs on imports that compensated for these unethical practices by foreign countries, we would still be making most auto parts in the US.

But there are close to 10,000 workers who bear no guilt for the actions of owners.

Just more Proles for the minimum wage workpool.

Or am I thinking of something else? I know it was a major supplier of automotive interior parts.

made his millions off the lighted flip mirror on a car visor.

Edgar Prince started Prince Automotive with the lighted vanity mirror as one of it's flagship products, and the company soon became a major supplier of interior components for the big three. Erik didn't have much interest in car stuff so he sold the company to Johnson Controls and used the money to start Blackwater.

picking up more bodies and corporate detris as it speeds up.

More hard working peoples jobs could be effected it would appear.





I guess Chrysler feels their $17 million dollar investment in keeping Plastech up and running is in jeopardy.