Stellantis moving to one shift at Windsor Assembly Plant in 2022

Stellantis is changing production operations at its Windsor Assembly Plant (WAP), moving to a one shift operation in spring of 2022, according to a news release from the company.

"The global automotive industry continues to face significant headwinds such as the persisting semiconductor shortage and the extended effects of the COVID-19 pandemic," said the release, sent out Friday afternoon.

"Beginning in the spring of 2022, WAP will transition to a one shift operation."

About 1,800 employeeswill be laid off permanently, leavingabout 2,600 people still employed, shifting the plant to a single-shift operation.

On Friday, Unifor Local444 which represents workers at the plant, tweetedthat they would be meeting with the company in the coming days to explore "all options."

"The company reiterated their commitment to their bargained investment and the three-shift operation in the future," the tweet said.

In the release, Stellantis said it will honour the investment commitment of up to $1.5 billion outlined in the 2020 collective agreement.

That collective agreement, reached in October between auto union Unifor and Stellantis, included a commitment from the companytokeepthe existing product portfolio in Ontario, and addthree product derivatives to its plants.

At the time,Union President Jerry Diassaid the new jobs added wouldinclude calling back 425 workers and adding more than 1,500 new jobs to the Windsor region.

In July 2020, the Windsor plant lost its third shift causing 1,500 workers to be laid off.

"With this investment and as vehicles start to roll off the assembly line in 2024, our third shift will be back and we expect that the total jobs will rise to over 2,000 more in the community in Windsor," Dias said in October.

The new platform in Windsor was set tolaunch in 2024.

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