What Chrysler workers are doing while laid off for 3 months

Chrysler workers laid off while the company retools its Windsor Assembly Plant have been keeping busy with home projects and pursuing passions during the three-month shutdown.

Chris Thomson is among the 4,500 hourly workers laid off in February, so the plant could be retooled at a cost of $2 billion. He's been busy renovating his home.

"I have a couple of bathrooms that I did. Plus I have some apartment buildings that I spent some time on as well," said Thomson, a Chrysler employee for 30 years. "So it was a good time for me to get caught up on a lot of projects."

Thomson says he's become a regular customer at the Home Hardware on Lesperance Road in Tecumseh since the plant shut down.

According to the store's paint department manager, Vicky Phillips, he's not the only one.

"You could tell the influx of customers coming in and I would ask them, 'Chrysler worker? Chrysler worker?'" Phillips said.

A former autoworker, Phillips rightly predicted that business would pick up after the layoffs.

Compared to the same month last year, sales numbers went up by 24 per cent in April.

Rick Labonte is an assembler who works on the trim line. He has been with the company for almost 20 years. While his job is at Chrysler, his passion is making music.

For the last year, he's slowly been working on recording an album.

"Being that I work on midnights, [am] a single father, I have very little time to do some of the stuff I'm doing here," he said at Polaris Recording Studio in Ford City.

Labonte has been spending much of his time in studio since being laid off.

"Before the layoff, I had about 60 per cent of the record done. Now, I'm close to 90 per cent," he said. "I'm really happy the way it's coming out. It's not rushed. I'm getting quality."

Labonte says other workers have taken the time to do some gardening and volunteer work.

The Chrysler renovation project is expected to be finished by the end of May.

However, Labonte's time off has ended. As a union trainer, Labonte was called back to work last week.

He expects to release his album later this summer.