Chrysler to Add 1,600 Workers at Illinois Plant .

By JEFF BENNETT

Chrysler Group LLC will announce next week it will add more than 1,600 production workers at an Illinois assembly plant, signaling the start of a hiring blitz that promises to add thousands of workers to the auto maker's plants over the next three years.

Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne is expected to make the announcement during a visit to the auto maker's Belvidere assembly plant on Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter. The plant will manufacture the 2013 Dodge Dart compact car alongside the Jeep Compass and Jeep Patriot, which are being updated for the 2013 model year.

The additional crew of workers starts in July and hiring has already begun, those people said. Workers will be paid the auto maker's new hire rate of $15.78 an hour. Chrysler spokeswoman Jodi Tinson declined to comment on the move.

The job expansion will be the first in a series of new hiring announcements that the auto maker is expected to make to meet growing demand for its cars and trucks. These jobs are in addition to hiring planned for its Jefferson North plant in Detroit and a Toledo, Ohio, assembly complex.

"We have to put in more than one shift in a variety of plants," Mr. Marchionne said during an interview with The Wall Street Journal late last year. "If we're going to move up to producing 2.4 million cars I need to make them somewhere. I mean I can't do it with the existing shift pattern. It's not as if I'm turning on more plants. I don't have any."

Mr. Marchionne's plan for Chrysler ultimately has the auto maker producing about 2.8 million new cars and trucks in 2014, outstripping the company's current manufacturing capacity. Chrysler has room to add workers to the Toledo complex along with factories in Sterling Heights and Warren, Mich., and Brampton, Ontario.

To keep costs in check, Chrysler intends to introduce a new working schedule known as "3-2-120." Under the system, three crews of employees on two shifts work four ten hour days or 120 hours.

"The benefit to the company is that we can run the plant more hours without the use of overtime and for the employees, they will now get more days during the year," Ms. Tinson said.

Write to Jeff Bennett at jeff.bennett@dowjones.com

Chrysler Plans New Hiring Blitz - WSJ.com