NEW YORK: Auto giant Stellantis announced Friday it will cease production of its entry-level Ram 1500 Classic pick-up at a Michigan plant, and threatened to cut almost 2,500 jobs.
“With the introduction of the new Ram 1500, production of the Ram 1500 Classic at the Warren (Michigan) Truck Assembly Plant will come to an end later this year,” the company said in a statement.
The plant’s assembly production line will reduce operations from two shifts per day to one, and will only produce its Jeep Wagoneer vehicle line at the site, the company said, adding that other activities there – such as painting – will continue on a two-shift rota.
Up to 2,450 people are expected to be made redundant from October 8.
Shawn Fain, president of United Auto Workers union, which represents the vast majority of the more-than 3,500 workers at the plant, called Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares a “disgrace” and “embarrassment.”
“We have been clear in private and in public with Stellantis that Tavares’s mismanagement of this company and his lack of commitment to the American autoworker is unacceptable,” Fain said in a statement.
The plant has been producing pick-up trucks since 1938, and has been responsible for manufacturing the Ram 1500 since 1993.
In 2013, Stellantis added a third daily shift at the plant, creating around 1,000 new jobs.
But in 2018, it moved production of the new generation of Ram 1500 vehicles to Sterling Heights, Michigan.
Stellantis, formed by the 2021 merger of Peugeot-Citroen and Fiat-Chrysler, is considered one of the “Big Three” carmakers based in the Detroit region, along with Ford and General Motors.
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