(CBS DETROIT) — Jeep-maker Stellantis is idling manufacturing at crops in Canada and Mexico and can briefly lay off 900 employees within the Midwest.
Starting April 7, Stellantis will pause manufacturing at its Windsor Meeting Plant for weeks, with operations set to renew the week of April 21. The choice will influence 4,500 represented Windsor staff.
“While we had heard rumours of potential downtime, the company said there are multiple factors at play, with the primary driver behind the final decision being this afternoon’s announcement from U.S. President Donald Trump of the U.S. tariffs,” stated Unifor Native 444 President James Stewart in a social media publish Wednesday night time.
The automaker can also be briefly pausing manufacturing at its Toluca (Mexico) Meeting Plant for April. The plant will idle manufacturing on April 7.
Because of the pause, 900 employees on the firm’s Warren Stamping and Sterling Stamping crops in Michigan, in addition to its Indiana Transmission Plant, Kokomo Transmission Plant and Kokomo Casting Plant, are being laid off.
In a letter despatched to staff Thursday morning, Antonio Filosa, Stellantis’ Chief Working Officer for the Americas, stated the automaker is constant to evaluate the impacts of tariffs on its operations.
“We are continuing to assess the medium- and long-term effects of these tariffs on our operations, but also have decided to take some immediate actions, including temporarily pausing production at some of our Canadian and Mexican assembly plants. Those actions will impact some employees at several of our U.S. powertrain and stamping facilities that support those operations,” Filosa stated.
Filosa says Stellantis acknowledges that “the current environment creates uncertainty. Be assured that we are very engaged with all of our key stakeholders, including top government leaders, unions, suppliers and dealers in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, as we work to manage and adapt to these changes. We are focused on taking responsible actions that are in the best interests of our customers, our business partners and you, our employees – wherever you work.”
In response to the layoffs, UAW President Shawn Fain stated “Stellantis continues to play games with workers’ lives. As we’ve shown time and again, they’ve got the money, the capacity, the product, and the workforce to employ thousands more UAW members in Michigan, Indiana, and beyond. These layoffs are a completely unnecessary choice that the company is making. It’s more of the same, and everything that’s wrong with our broken trade system. Companies like Stellantis use workers as collateral damage to pay the price for management’s poor decisions, and it’s unacceptable.”
