Stellantis is looking to trim its Canadian workforce by offering buyouts and incentives, but the automaker won’t say how many jobs it is targeting.
“Stellantis will ... offer certain represented employees in the U.S. and Canada an opportunity to separate from the company,” Stellantis Head of Communications Canada LouAnn Gosselin said in a statement to Automotive News Canada April 26. “Information regarding the various packages will be communicated to eligible employees the week of May 1.”
Gosselin said “we are not providing [the] numbers” of employees affected.
Unifor seems unfazed by the automaker’s decision to trim its workforce.
“Unifor’s position is this decision does not negate the commitments the company made to invest in new vehicle and battery production in its Canadian operations, including the creation of new jobs for Unifor members,” Unifor National President Lana Payne said in a statement to Automotive News Canada. “Unifor intends to hold Stellantis firmly to these commitments, including those made during 2020 collective bargaining negotiations.”
Sibling publication Automotive News on April 25 reported Stellantis aims to cut about 3,500 hourly jobs in the United States by offering buyouts and retirement incentives to workers ahead of negotiations with the United Auto Workers (UAW) later this year.
In the United States, UAW Local 1264, which represents the Stellantis stamping plant in Sterling Heights, Mich., said in a letter to members that the offers would be made "corporate wide."
Retirement-eligible workers hired before ratification of Chrysler's 2007 contract with the UAW can receive US $50,000 to leave their job, according to the letter, which Local 1264 posted Monday on Facebook. Employees who have been with the company for at least a year would be eligible for a lump-sum benefit payment, the letter said, without specifying the amount.
Workers can sign up for either package from May 6 through June 19. Departure dates are tentatively scheduled for June 30 through Dec. 31, depending on each plant's needs.
The openings would be filled by workers on indefinite layoff, the letter said.
A Stellantis spokesperson declined to comment on the U.S. plan.
The 3,500-job target in the United States would represent about eight per cent of the 43,000 hourly workers in that country who were eligible to collect a profit-sharing check from Stellantis in March.
The attrition incentives come as Stellantis prepares to launch 25 electric vehicles in the United States by 2030. CEO Carlos Tavares has said that the automaker must find savings as it ramps up production for EVs that are more costly to build than conventional gasoline models.
Along with the offers to hourly employees, the company is also offering voluntary separation packages to “designated non-represented U.S. employees who have 15 or more years of service and work in certain organizations.”
“In response to today’s increasingly competitive global market conditions and the necessary shift to electrification, Stellantis is thoroughly reviewing its North American operations to improve efficiency, reduce costs and protect the competitiveness of our products to allow for further strategic investments to support our transformation,” Gosselin said in the Canadian statement. “To support the overall transformation to a mobility tech company, Stellantis continues to evolve its workforce by offering opportunities to learn new skills outside their existing skillset or enhance current skills.”
The Associated Press in the United States initially and erroneously reported on Wednesday that the automaker will offer buyouts to all 8,000 unionized workers in Canada. Stellantis will not say how many of those 8,000 will be offered early retirement packages.
