Chrysler Employee Group Follows Imperato's Advice and Bids on Chrysler

Detroit – In a formal letter to DaimlerChrysler AG Chairman and CEO Dieter Zetsche, 25 employees from the local Chrysler Jeep manufacturing plan in Toledo, Ohio submitted a bid for the United Auto Workers to acquire the Chrysler Corporation.

The committee named the "Chrysler Employee Buyout Committee", led by Michele Mauder, has proposed an employee stock ownership plan or (ESOP) in exchange for healthcare concessions.

The proposal comes after the March 1 declaration by Florida Businessman Daniel Imperato of his own ESOP plan for Chrysler .

Now after Imperato's plan has gained attention from national and online media outlets, including the Detroit Free Press, everyone from Kirk Kerkorian to now the Chrysler Employee Buyout Committee has become warm on the idea.

In 1974, Congress created the Employee Stock Ownership Program to encourage companies to allow employees to take a stake in their companies. ESOPs use a trust to hold company stock; the principal benefit is tax breaks for the company. Today, more than 1,400 ESOP companies together employ more than 1 million.

When asked about starting an ESOP for Chrysler, Daniel Imperato stated that, "it would be the first time the history of US Auto manufacturing that the workers have owned their own destiny. Chrysler has always been a trendsetting company and now it must blaze the trail into the next frontier of the industry, the employee owned company."

Last February Zetsche announced that all options were open for Chrysler after it has posted a $1.5 billion loss in 2006.

Currently, Chrysler is in negotiations with Cerberus Captial Management LP, Blackstone Group, which is in conjunction with Centerbridge Capital Partners, and Canadian auto parts supplier Magna International Inc., which has partnered with Onex Corp., a Canadian buyout firm.

All of the above named firms have offered the UAW some equity stake in a potential buyout but none have equated to a substantial interest in the Chrysler Corporation.

The Chrysler Employee Buyout Committee has currently consulted with representatives from Kent State University and is actively seeking an advisory group and an investment banker to help facilitate the proposed buyout.

Regarding to questions about a potential partnership between the Chrysler Employee Buyout Committee, Imperato stated, "As many have said all options are on the table. I proposed the Chrysler ESOP Plan almost two months ago for the employees of the Chrysler Corporation. What people need to understand is that I am doing this for the benefit of the US auto worker. I am doing this so that middle class families can have a secure future and an ownership stake in the company that they have supported for decades."

Imperato said that for him it was about keeping jobs here in America and seeing an American institution return to its former glory.
"They can't have that future if they are bought out by a private equity firm and then sold off to the highest bidders. The American auto worker has worked too hard and too long to see his or her job lost because no one in America cared. My name is Daniel Imperato and I am standing up to tell the United Auto Workers and the entire United States of America that I care about American jobs, American families, and most importantly American pride. Let's keep Chrysler the American institution that we all know it is."

*** This release has been created by i1connect, an independent news agency.***

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