Stellantis is immediately laying off 68 employees at the Toledo Machining Plant in Perrysburg, Ohio, due to the impact from the United Auto Workers union’s targeted strike at the Toledo Assembly Complex, the company said Wednesday.
The layoffs will be temporary and are due to storage constraints, Stellantis said in a statement, adding that it had run out of space to store the parts made at the plant. Production at the rest of the facility will continue.
More layoffs are anticipated at Kokomo Transmission and Kokomo Casting in Kokomo, Indiana, impacting an additional 300 employees there, the company said.
This is the first layoff announcement by Stellantis. Ford and General Motors already laid off or warned of idling employees at two of their plants because of the targeted strikes.
About 600 employees at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant’s body construction department and south sub-assembly area of integrated stamping were laid off in Wayne, Michigan on Friday. The paint and final assembly department is on strike at that plant.
General Motors said last week that 2,000 workers at the Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas are expected to be idled as soon as this week due to the strike at GM Wentzville Assembly in Wentzville, Missouri.
UAW President Shawn Fain said on Monday he could announce more targeted strikes Friday if negotiations with the Big Three do not progress by noon that day.
The union is on strike for better pay and benefits and more time off; the companies have argued they can’t afford the union’s demands. Both sides have blamed each other for the work stoppages.
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