“Chrysler is comfortable with the scope of the arbitrations and believes they will continue to confirm the sound business decisions made during the bankruptcy proceedings,” the carmaker says in its weekly release.
“While the Company is fully prepared to defend its interests in the arbitrations, we continue to focus on designing, manufacturing and selling exciting new products to benefit customers, existing dealers and to ensure the Company’s ability to pay back the U.S. taxpayer.”
Out of the 789 dealers rejected by Chrysler last year, so far only 6 six have won reinstatement (known figure for June 7, 2010). The biggest success was achieved by Jack Fitzgerald, one of the dealers' leaders in the fight against closures, who won his case last week.
Overall thought, arbitration is going well for the carmaker. Chrysler keeps saying the closures were essential for its survival, as the consequence of not doing so would have been far, far worse.
The only alternative would have been complete liquidation, which would have had devastating economic consequences -- the closing of all 3,200 dealers, hundreds of thousands of lost jobs and the company defaulting on taxpayer loans.
Google News