By Rachel Lippmann, KWMU
St. Louis – Hundreds of workers from two St. Louis-area Chrysler plants will be in the Detroit area Thursday to protest job cuts at the two facilities.
The rally at the company's headquarters in Auburn Hills could draw as many as a thousand union members.
Chrysler announced in late June that it would close the Fenton minivan plant and eliminate a shift at the Fenton truck plant.
Twenty-four hundred workers will lose their jobs by the end of October.
Don Ackerman is the vice president of United Auto Workers Local 136, which represents employees at the truck plant.
"Almost all these vehicles are sold predominately in the United States. Both of them are. But yet they're going to be making them now solely in Windsor, Canada, and also our Ram truck is built in Mexico."
A plant in Michigan also builds the Ram truck.
Ackerman says the rally won't reverse the job cuts. But he says he hopes Americans will realize the U-A-W members are rallying for all American jobs.
"Our jobs are just being outsourced so it's getting ridiculous. And who gets hurt on this is our schools, our infrastructures, the roads. Nothing gets done because we no longer have tax base. We are losing our tax base and we must conserve that to keep this nation going."
Ackerman says 450 local Chrysler workers are going to Michigan.