PERRYSBURG, Ohio – Detroit-based automaker Stellantis announced Wednesday that hundreds of workers will be temporarily laid off at facilities in Ohio and Indiana due to the United Auto Workers strike.
Each of Detroit’s Big Three automakers has announced temporary layoffs related to the autoworker strike, with Stellantis being the latest to announce immediate layoffs. On Sept. 15, the same day the historic strike was initiated, both General Motors and Ford Motor Company announced temporary layoffs of non-striking workers.
In a company statement issued Wednesday morning, Stellantis officials said the company expects to lay off more than 350 workers at three different facilities as a “consequence of the strike action at the Toledo Assembly Complex.”
About 300 employees are expected to be laid off at Kokomo Transmission and Kokomo Casting in Kokomo, Indiana. Officials say 68 Stellantis employees will immediately be laid off at the Toledo Machining Plant in Perrysburg, Ohio “due to storage constraints,” though “all other production” will continue at that facility.
So far, about 13,000 of the UAW’s 146,000 autoworkers were called to strike after the union and the Big Three failed to meet agreements by their Sept. 14 contract deadline. As of Wednesday, the strike was affecting three facilities, one for each company: the GM Wentzville Assembly, the Stellantis Toledo Assembly Complex, and the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant (final assembly and paint only).
All other UAW members were still working, though they could be asked to join the strike sometime soon. UAW President Shawn Fain has threatened to expand the strike if negotiations don’t make “serious progress” by noon on Friday, Sept. 22, but it’s unknown how many more workers might be asked to strike at that time.
Last week, Ford announced that it would temporarily lay off 600 non-striking employees at its Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne. GM said it would be idling its Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas, which was expected to put around 2,000 people out of work.
In response, Fain issued the following statement:
“Let’s be clear: If the Big Three decide to lay people off who aren’t on strike, that’s them trying to put the squeeze on our members to settle for less. With their record profits, they don’t have to lay off a single employee. In fact, they could double every autoworker’s pay, not raise car prices, and still rake in billions of dollars.
“Their plan won’t work. The UAW will make sure any worker laid off in the Big Three’s latest attack will not go without an income. We’ll organize one day longer than they can, and go the distance to win economic and social justice at the Big Three.”
The UAW calculates that the Big Three made a combined total of $21 billion in profit in the first half of 2023, and a combined $250 billion in American profits in the last 10 years. In comparison, Fain says employee wages have increased just 6% over the last four years.