Stellantis is planning indefinite layoffs of union-represented workers “across its footprint” and is cutting seasonal supplemental employees as well.
The total number of workers who will be affected was unclear as of Tuesday.
“This affects many of our U.S. manufacturing facilities, but we are not providing specific details,” Stellantis spokeswoman Ann Marie Fortunate said.
Recent social media posts indicate workers at numerous plants have either been told of cuts or are bracing for them.
The company provided statements highlighting market conditions and vehicle affordability as the reasoning behind the layoffs.
“Stellantis is in full execution mode focused on both protecting the company from the continued intense external market conditions and, at the same time, offering customers vehicles they can afford,” according to a statement about the layoffs provided by Fortunate. “As such, we are continuing to take the necessary actions to improve operations across our facilities; this includes ongoing assessments of our manufacturing processes to improve efficiency. While that effort continues, the company will be implementing indefinite layoffs of represented employees across its footprint.”
More: Stellantis CFO says automaker will cut 100K vehicles from inventory by 2025
The other statement noted that “seasonal supplemental employees hired to support production by covering for increased vacation usage during the summer months will be separated from the company effective Oct. 1, in accordance with the 2023 UAW collective bargaining agreement.”
The Free Press reached out to the company last week to ask about potential supplemental cuts and again on Tuesday after a letter from UAW Local 1700 leadership was posted on Facebook saying that 177 supplemental workers were being terminated and 14 full-time union workers would be laid off indefinitely as of Thursday at Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, where the Ram 1500 pickup is built.
The letter noted that affected workers learned of the job cuts via phone call.
Local 1700 Vice President Eric Watters said the company’s actions leave many questions to be answered.
“We’re trying to understand their method of operation. We don’t know the game plan,” he said, noting the plant’s history of producing award-winning products. “We’re looking for answers ourselves.”
Stellantis, which owns the Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat brands, has lately been trading jabs with the UAW. The union says the company isn’t living up to its investment commitments in the contract that was negotiated last year, which the company disputes.
One particular point of contention involves the Dodge Durango. The company won’t say definitively whether it is planning to move Durango production from Detroit to Windsor, Ontario, as the union contends.
The automaker has also announced that it will cut a shift at its Warren Truck plant this year, and it says it has delayed plans to reopen the idled Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois.
The union has filed grievances with the company, charges with the National Labor Relations Board and has threatened a potential national strike over product investment-related issues.
More changes could be on the way, too. Stellantis Chief Financial Officer Natalie Knight told analysts Monday that the company intends to have 80% of “our supply” coming from “best-cost countries” in coming years, echoing a theme the automaker has been touting to investors this year.
Stellantis’ issues go well beyond its fight with the UAW, however. The company has been struggling with high inventories, lower sales in its crucial U.S. market and diminished profits, although it has remained profitable, according to its most recent earnings report. Stellantis’ U.S. dealers issued a highly critical letter calling out CEO Carlos Tavares, saying they’d been warning executives about the company’s direction for more than two years.
The company has launched a search for a successor to Tavares, although Stellantis, in a statement, pointed to the expiration in 2026 of Tavares’ contract, describing such a search as normal given the importance of the position and suggesting that he might stay on longer.
Contact Eric D. Lawrence: [email protected]. Become a subscriber. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Stellantis plans layoffs, blames ‘external market conditions’
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