Detroit-area Stellantis workers brace for more layoffs after tariffs: 'They're terrified'
Warren — Two major Stellantis NV parts plants in Metro Detroit were bracing Friday for a combined 330 temporary layoffs set to begin within days and last at least several weeks.
The staffing cutbacks — about 170 at Warren Stamping Plant and 160 at Sterling Stamping Plant — were to start Monday and are tied to the automaker's decision this week to temporarily idle two of its major assembly factories in Canada and Mexico that are impacted by President Donald Trump's new 25% tariffs on imported vehicles. Stellantis said Thursday it expected about 900 workers total in the United States to be laid off due to the new auto import taxes, with the additional cuts occurring at transmission and parts plants in Kokomo, Indiana.
Both the Detroit area stamping facilities are especially impacted by Windsor Assembly Plant going down starting next week, as they feed parts to the Canadian factory that builds Chrysler minivans and Dodge Charger electric muscle cars, said Romaine McKinney III, president of United Auto Workers Local 869, which represents about 800 workers at Warren Stamping. McKinney said his plant also is impacted by nearby Warren Truck Assembly Plant soon pausing production for several weeks due to an engine shortage.
With the additional cuts coming next week, the union leader said more than 260 of his members will be out on temporary layoff in total, following previous cutbacks.
"They're terrified," McKinney said of his members. "They're in an uproar because they knew it was coming, they could see it coming — but it's reality now."
McKinney has mixed feelings about Trump's tariffs. Right now they are fueling the coming layoffs and leading to lower morale among his members. They are set to push up prices on various goods, which also won't be good for his middle-class membership.
Yet he also supports the goal of bringing back manufacturing work to the United States — even Warren Stamping has plenty of "white space" where it could rebuild assembly lines and add staff to increase parts output, a projects he estimates, at the very fastest, might take one year.
"It's just so early in the game," McKinney said, and unclear how the tariff strategy will all shake out.
Warren Stamping worker Daiquiri Harris said the automaker's layoff plans caught him off guard. He knew job cuts were possible due to the tariffs but figured his plant had already seen such deep cuts recently, it wouldn't be able to reduce its workforce much further. The 47-year-old said he wondered why General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. hadn't yet announced similar cutbacks yet due to tariffs, and whether Stellantis may have been looking to cut back production and staff anyway.
Harris said he's torn about the White House's tariff strategy.
"It's tough, man," he said. "I know they want to bring the manufacturing back, and this is how they propose to do it, but I don't know. Maybe in the long run, this'll work out, and we'll all look back at it and be glad it happened. But for right now, it's not looking good."
Democratic U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar of Detroit joined a handful of supporters in front of Stellantis' Detroit Assembly Complex-Jefferson plant on Friday afternoon to discuss Trump's tariffs and the automaker's plans to temporarily trim jobs in response. He argued tariffs can be helpful to the United States if used judiciously and strategically — but the Republican president's onslaught of new levies on nations, the auto industry and more was instead a "macho, bully approach to dealing with the economy."
Thanedar acknowledged this "bullying" approach might work ins some instances, scaring certain countries or companies to change their practices. But he said it also appeared set to damage the interconnected auto industry, which he noted sends parts back and forth to be manufactured between countries.
The congressman also questioned whether Stellantis really needed to pause plants and cut its workforce in response to the president's new tariffs on the industry, a sentiment that has been echoed in recent days by UAW officials.
"These 900 jobs that they are cutting, supposedly a temporary job (cut) — is that really a result of these tariffs, or is this where a company is taking advantage of the situation to trim and cut some of the workforce?" Thanedar asked. "If that's what they are doing, Stellantis should not be doing that."
Thanedar said he had not discussed the tariff issue with Stellantis. The automaker declined to respond to his comments. But executives have said the company does need to pause production and shipments due to the new 25% tax, and as they seek to work out key details on the new levies with the Trump administration.
UAW retiree and former engine plant worker Willie Wyatt, 85, who attended Thanedar's gathering on Friday, said he watched many good auto jobs leave the Detroit area over the years. But he's not convinced Trump's tariffs will bring them back. He said he's worried the tariffs will just raise prices — and lead to more layoffs for the autoworkers that remain.
"Them companies don't leave and say, 'I'm gonna build a new plant tomorrow and come back here,'" Wyatt said. "Donald Trump's term is supposed to end in three or four years from now. It takes you two to three years to build a plant."
By: Luke Ramseth
Source: The Detroit News