Stellantis has once again extended the life of a second shift at its minivan plant in Windsor, Ont.
The automaker said Friday that the Windsor Assembly Plant will remain a two-shift operation until the end of 2022.
The automaker declined to comment further on why it extended the shift. It only confirmed what Unifor Local 444 President Dave Cassidy said in a Facebook post late Thursday evening.
Stellantis had originally said in a news release issued in October 2021 the plant would be knocked down to a single shift “beginning in the early spring” of 2022.
In February of this year, the automaker said it would knock the Windsor Assembly Plant down to a single shift at the end of June 2022.
About 4,500 people, the majority of them Unifor members, build the Chrysler Pacifica and Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid for global markets, the Chrysler Grand Caravan for the Canadian market and Chrysler Voyager for fleet sales.
Prior to its merger with PSA Group, Fiat Chrysler pledged during 2020 contract negotiations with Unifor to invest between $1.35 billion and $1.5 billion to begin building electrified vehicles at the Windsor assembly plant.
Both the union and automaker maintain that promise will be kept.
Canadian Pacifica sales were up 64 per cent to 4,505 in 2021. The automaker sold 2,721 Chrysler Grand Caravans in Canada last year. Stellantis in 2020 eliminated the Dodge Caravan and moved it into the Chrysler product line.
First-quarter sales of the Pacifica were up 50 per cent to 2,154 this year while Grand Caravan sales surged 79 per cent to 1,220.
As recently as 2019, the Windsor Assembly Plant was a three-shift operation.
