DaimlerChrysler AG said it will idle about 5,000 workers at its Ontario minivan plant for a day Friday Dec. 8 to help cut the number of unsold vehicles. The move will cut about 1,300 vehicles from the Windsor, Ontario, plant's weekly output of about 7,350, said spokesman Trevor Hale. The plant makes Dodge Caravan and Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country minivans. "We're shifting maintenance to Friday instead of Saturday," Hale said. The one-day idling comes after the Stuttgart, Germany-based com-pany's Chrysler U.S. unit last week said it was cutting an extra 146,000 vehicles from fourth-quarter produc-tion plans by idling as many as five plants in each of December's first three weeks. The supply of the U.S. unit's minivans on dealer lots ranged from as low as 34 days for the Ply-mouth Voyager to 97 for the Town & Country, according to Autodata Corp. The industry average is 60 to 70 days. Chrysler U.S. minivan sales last month fell 16 percent from a year earlier to 28,902. About 1,400 workers were idled at the company's Kokomo, Ind., trans-mission and casting plants this week because of the already announced closure of the Newark, DE and St. Louis North plants for the week, Hale also said. The assembly plants build the Dodge Durango sport util-ity and Dodge Ram Quad Cab full-size pickup.
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