Stellantis Canada says its Windsor, Ont., assembly plant will be idled for three more weeks this fall, as the automaker points to tariffs and weaker North American consumer demand as the drivers behind the latest round of layoffs.
In a statement issued Friday, the company said the plant would be down during the weeks of Oct. 19, Oct. 26 and Nov. 2. The more than 6,400 employees at the facility had already been laid off for two weeks and were scheduled to return to work Monday.
A Stellantis spokesperson said the company “continues to evaluate and adjust its manufacturing operations in response to evolving market conditions, including consumer demand and the impact of tariffs.”
Contract Talks at a Standstill
The layoffs come as Stellantis and Unifor, the union representing the automaker’s Canadian workers, remain deadlocked in contract negotiations. A major sticking point is the future of Stellantis’ assembly plant in Brampton, Ont., which the company has said it wants to sell, citing “market and trade conditions.” Unifor has called that plan “indefensible.”
Stellantis said Friday there has been “no change in contract negotiations,” and that employees are currently working under the terms of the collective agreement, which expired Sept. 20.
The Windsor plant builds the Chrysler Pacifica minivan and the Dodge Charger. James Stewart, president of Unifor Local 444, which represents Windsor’s auto workers, announced the new layoffs in a video posted to Facebook on Friday.
Union Reaction
“That’s more downtime in our system, something we didn’t want to hear,” Stewart said in the video.
Stewart has previously said that, along with the Brampton plant issue, securing additional product allocations for the Windsor plant and the company’s casting plant in Etobicoke are important priorities in the ongoing contract talks.
Stewart said in the video that employees would receive further updates on the state of negotiations when they return to work Monday, including a leaflet detailing recent developments in bargaining and what to expect going forward.
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