Chrysler announced on Tuesday that it suspended nine workers from its Trenton Engine Plant without pay after FOX aired a report showing them drinking and smoking during lunch break.
It all started when big brother FOX 2 reporter Rob Wolchek received two separate calls from colleagues of the aforementioned workers claiming that they no longer wanted to work with people behaving in such a dangerous manner.
This is not the first time that Chrysler workers have been caught on video drinking: just 10 months ago, 13 workers at the Jefferson North Plant in Detroit were captured on film drinking beer before heading back to work.
Scott Garberding, senior vice president of manufacturing, was clearly frustrated by the second occurrence of misbehavior.
“I am both hurt and angered over what your cameras captured. Again, we have Chrysler workers in a compromised position, without regard for the impact of their actions, the reputation of their coworkers, the plant, of the company, not to mention their own reputation and that of their families,” said Garberding.
“As a company, in the last two years we’ve come too far and made way too much progress to let the bad actions of a few put a shadow on the rest of the employees. And to be clear, we’ve got a code of conduct at Chrysler and some of the activities that we saw in your video are clearly outside of the code of conduct and unacceptable,” he added.
Shorty after, Chrysler released this statement:
“From the Fox 2 story on Chrysler Group’s Trenton Engine Plant, the Company was able to identify nine employees captured on video. To date, all nine employees have been suspended indefinitely without pay pending further investigation. While the evidence seems conclusive, the Company needs to act in accordance with corporate policy and the terms of the collective bargaining agreement before further action is taken. The investigation is ongoing.”
You can watch the videos after the jump.
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