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Stellantis cutting 400 jobs at Detroit parts warehouse

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Stellantis cutting 400 jobs at Detroit parts warehouse

Stellantis NV plans to cut about 400 union workers at an east Detroit warehousing facility early next year.

The indefinite layoffs will affect all United Auto Workers-represented employees at the Freud Street parts sequencing facility, which is near the company’s Detroit Assembly Complex-Jefferson plant. Stellantis said it’s transitioning operations to a third-party.

“As Stellantis navigates a transitional year, the focus is on realigning its U.S. operations to ensure a strong start to 2025,” said a statement on the layoffs sent by spokesperson Ann Marie Fortunate.

The automaker continues to trim staffing and slash vehicle production at a number of its U.S. facilities — including carrying out hundreds of layoffs in recent months at plants around Metro Detroit. The cuts come amid a difficult year of sales and other operational problems that has seen Chrysler, Dodge, Ram and Jeep vehicles pile up on dealer lots.

Earlier this week, the company announced it would cut a shift and lay off about 1,100 workers who build Jeep Gladiators in Toledo early next year amid low demand for the pickups. Those cutbacks meant that Mobis North America LLC, a major supplier that builds the chassis for the Gladiator inside the same plant, was also forced to announce a layoff of 210 of its assemblers and maintenance technicians early next year. The company cited “loss of customer order” in its notice this week.

In the spring, Stellantis had carried out layoffs of more than 200 supplemental workers at the Freud Street facility, part of several rounds of cuts of those lower-paid workers around the company.

The carmaker said it had issued a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN notice, to local and state authorities about the Freud Street layoff. It said the job cuts would occur as early as Jan. 5, and that those impacted would be eligible for supplemental benefits on top of their state unemployment check, which together equals 74% of their normal pay. Healthcare coverage is also provided for two years.

Workers at the Freud Street facility were sent a message from the company’s human resources department Wednesday noting that “there has been a lot of disruption recently,” and thanking the employees for their “tremendous resiliency.”

“While the company is making tough decisions to improve operations, the work in our facility will be transitioned to a third-party service provider in January 2025,” the HR message said. “I know this is incredibly difficult news to hear, especially because this will result in job losses.”

A local United Auto Workers leader representing workers at the Freud Street facility could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.

lramseth@detroitnews.com

@lramseth

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