DaimlerChrysler Valentine’s Day massacre

Roughly 13,000 Chrysler workers, including 2,000 in Canada, will lose their jobs under a plan designed to cut the struggling automaker’s costs and return it to profitability by next year.

Under the plan, 11,000 production workers, 9,000 in the US and 2,000 in Canada, will lose their jobs over the next three years and 2,000 salaried jobs will also be cut, including 1,000 this year and 1,000 in 2008. At Chrysler’s Canadian operations, 1,100 cuts will fall in 2007 alone.

The automaker’s plan also calls for closing the company’s Newark assembly plant and reducing shifts at plants in Warren and St. Louis. Furthermore, a parts distribution center near Cleveland will also be closed. In addition, Chrysler will reduce the number of vehicles it produces each year by 400,000.

DaimlerChrysler said its fourth-quarter earnings plunged 40 percent on weaker demand at the Chrysler unit, where sales fell 7 percent. Profit at the automaker fell to $761 million, or 74 cents per share, as revenue slipped to $53.7 billion.

The plan was announced this morning, hours after DaimlerChrysler AG, said it was considering “far-reaching strategic options with partners” and that “no option is being excluded.”