Stellantis Idles Production At The Windsor Assembly Plant Due To Supply Chain Shortage!

Production has come to a halt at the Windsor Assembly Plant in Windsor, Ontario, Canada for the rest of the week. The 4.4 million square feet facility manufacturers the entire lineup of Chrysler minivans (Chrysler Pacifica, Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid, Chrysler Voyager, and Chrysler Grand Caravan). 

According to Stellantis, the shutdown is due to a parts shortage from an external supplier and is unrelated to the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage. Unlike the several shutdowns that have plagued the plant over the last year and a half.

Local Unifor 444, the labor union that represents the plant announced the shutdown in a post on Facebook Sunday evening.

The Windsor Assembly Plant has struggled during the pandemic. After facing several shutdowns due to the semiconductor shortage, Stellantis announced that it would be moving to a one-shift operation starting in June. The cuts would eliminate about 1,800 jobs at the facility.

According to Stellantis, the company does not plan to back away from a $1.3 to $1.5 billion CAD commitment it made during Unifor contract negotiations (2020 Collective Agreement) last year. The commitment called for an additional future plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) or a battery-electric vehicle (BEV) to be manufactured at the WAP facility, which is expected to launch in 2024. The plan called for the creation of 2,000 jobs.

Last week, Stellantis and LG Energy Solutions (LGES) announced they will invest more than $5 billion CAD ($4.1 billion USD) to establish operations, which will include an all-new battery manufacturing plant located in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Plant construction activities are scheduled to begin later this year, with production operations planned to launch in the first quarter of 2024.

The new battery plant aims to have an annual production capacity in excess of 45-gigawatt hours (GWh) and will create an estimated 2,500 new jobs in Windsor and the surrounding areas. Each of the municipal, provincial, and federal levels of the Canadian government has agreed to fully support the successful operation of the joint venture company.