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Sweet seats and candy canes: Inside Fiat Chrysler's Toledo turnaround

Santa on the assembly line
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Santa on the assembly line
Pino found a workforce of around 1,700 people, demoralized by Chrysler's bankruptcy. The plant produced just over 140,000 vehicles in 2009.

He began working to win the workers' trust. He dressed as Santa Claus before Christmas 2010 and handed out candy canes to workers on the line, greeting each by name, workers at the plant recall.

Pino also pushed for more productivity but did so by asking workers how they would redesign their own cumbersome jobs.

"Usually you need to convince people to change, but when they saw what we were doing they started coming to us," he said.

"The new system gave everyone a voice," said Cheryl Reash, a 36-year worker at the plant.
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