Bonuses ahead at Chrysler

For hourly workers, the pay outs are based on a profit-sharing formula ratified by UAW members last fall. THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON Enlarge | Photo Reprints

DETROIT -- Factory workers at Chrysler will get profit-sharing checks of about $1,500 next month as they share in the automaker's improbable turnaround.

About 26,000 union-represented workers in the U.S. should get the payments, including workers at the company's Toledo Assembly complex and at the Toledo Machining Plant in Perrysburg Township.

For salaried employees, the payments are based on a performance plan. For hourly workers, they are based on a profit-sharing formula ratified by UAW members last fall.

RELATED ARTICLE: Illinois assembly plant building Dodge Dart to add 1,800 jobs

On Wednesday, Chrysler reported an operating profit of $1.97 billion for 2011.

Chrysler Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne told employees in an email that they have earned the rewards. "You have been to hell and back, and you defied predictions of our demise," Mr. Marchionne wrote. "Your efforts rewrote the history that so many naysayers had forecast."

The last time Chrysler workers received a profit-sharing check was in 2005, when workers received a check of about $650.

Even with the 2011 profit, workers at Chrysler won't get as much in profit sharing as their unionized counterparts at Ford and General Motors.

Ford will make profit-sharing payments of about $6,200 each to its 41,600 U.S. hourly employees in March. GM workers are expected to get more than the $4,000 they received last year. The company announces its fourth-quarter and annual earnings on Feb. 16.

Chrysler officials predicted that 2012 would be even better than 2011, with total U.S. auto sales projected to rise by more than 1 million to about 14 million. On Wednesday, the company said its January sales rose 44 percent compared with a year earlier. The company forecast a net profit of $1.5 billion this year with an 18 percent revenue increase, to $65 billion.