Windsor, Ontario — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has confirmed it will be cutting production at its Canadian minivan plant, eliminating about 1,500 jobs as it wrestles with flattening demand for new vehicles.
After nearly a year of extensions, FCA said it is cancelling the third shift at its Windsor, Ont. assembly plant, effective June 29. The company is also phasing out the Dodge Grand Caravan, the output of which will cease at the end of May.
Approximately 4,500 workers will remain in Windsor after the cuts. The plant will continue to build the Chrysler Pacifica, Pacifica Hybrid and Chrysler Voyager.
According to FCA spokesperson Jodi Tinson, “the decision comes as the company works to align volumes with demand.” She said the company “will make every effort to place indefinitely laid-off hourly employees in open full-time positions as they become available based on seniority.”
FCA first announced plans to eliminate the plant’s third shift in March 2019 but delayed the downsizing after outrage and disappointment from Unifor. At the time, the union was also grappling with the closure of General Motors’ assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont.
Unifor Local 444 has said it will continue to fight the shift loss.
“We will not stop,” Unifor Local 444 president Dave Cassidy said in a tweet. “We are going to do everything we can to get everyone back to work.”
Cassidy also said the union would fight for new products at Windsor assembly to prevent the cuts.
No cuts have been proposed at the automaker’s plant in Brampton, Ont., where 3,400 employees build the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger and Dodge Challenger.
Fiat Chrysler has taken a series of actions to trim production across North America this year. It has twice idled the assembly lines at its Belvidere, Illinois Jeep Cherokee plant, and also idled the Windsor minivan plant for two weeks in January.
