Jefferson North Assembly

Jefferson North Assembly Plant (JNAP) is a Chrysler automobile assembly factory in Detroit, Michigan. Located on East Jefferson Avenue 6 mi (9.6 km) from downtown, near Grosse Pointe Park, the factory opened in 1991 as a major commitment to the downtown Detroit area by Chrysler, and was expanded in 1999, bringing its area to 2,700,000 sq ft (250,000 m²) and expanded again in 2011, bringing its total to 3,000,000 sq ft (280,000 m²). Its first product was the Jeep Grand Cherokee from the start, which it continues to produce to this day. It uses the original site of the Hudson Motor Company location that was originally built during the 1940s as a storage lot for newly manufactured vehicles to the east of the facility.

Jefferson North is the only auto assembly plant that is entirely within the city limits. A second plant, Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly owned by General Motors, where Cadillacs are manufactured, is partly in Detroit and partly in the neighboring city of Hamtramck.

Chrysler announced in August 2008 a 1.8-billion-dollar investment in the plant that would expand it by 285,000 sq ft (26,500 m²) and upgrade the facility for the production of a new product in 2010. Improvements in the plant occurred during a period of intense corporate turmoil for the parent company. Daimler-Benz had sold its majority stake to Cerberus Capital Management in 2007. Cerberus and the United Auto Workers agreed in 2007 to a plan whereby entry workers are paid $16/hour compared to $28 for long-term UAW employees. The Cerberus-owned company went into bankruptcy in 2009 with the company getting a multibillion-dollar bailout by the United States government before ultimately being acquired by Fiat in 2011.

In 2013, more than 300,000 cars a year were being produced at the plant and its work force was reported at 4,600 working, with the plant in operation 24 hours a day. The crews work an "alternative work schedule" (AWS) known as 3-2-120 that does not require Chrylser to pay overtime or weekend pay. The schedule was part of the bailout package. Each crew works 10 hours a day for 4 days ("A” 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday; “B” 6 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday through Saturday; “C” 10 hours on the night shift Monday and Tuesday and 10 hours on the day shift Friday and Saturday). The 3/2/120 comes from a practice of working for three days, taking off two (plus Sunday for everyone) so that everyone works 120 hours over every three weeks.

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