WINDSOR, Ontario -- Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, responding to falling demand for minivans, is dropping one of three production shifts at its assembly plant here in September, a move that will eliminate about 1,500 jobs, the automaker said Thursday.
FCA has already idled the plant for three weeks this year and plans to do the same for two weeks in April, citing softening sales in the segment.
Minivan demand in the U.S. has dropped steadily since peaking at 1.371 million in 2000.
U.S. sales of minivans dropped 0.3 percent to just under 500,000 units last year, and demand has dropped 23 percent through the first two months of this year.
“In order to better align production with global demand at its Windsor Assembly Plant, FCA notified Unifor today that it intends to return the plant to a traditional two-shift operation, beginning Sept. 30, 2019,” FCA Canada spokeswoman Lou Ann Gosselin said in a statement. “Retirement packages will be offered to eligible employees. The company will make every effort to place indefinitely laid off hourly employees in open full-time positions as they become available based on seniority.”
About 6,000 employees currently build the Chrysler Pacifica, Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid and Dodge Grand Caravan at the Windsor factory. The plant has long operated on three shifts daily, usually six days per week. Running at full volume, the plant produces nearly 1,500 minivans per day.
Earlier this month, FCA Canada confirmed that the plant, which has built minivans since 1983, was already operating with shorter production shifts.
U.S. sales of the Pacifica were largely unchanged in 2018 at 118,322, down just 48 units from the year before. In Canada, Pacifica deliveries dropped 3 percent to 5,999 in 2018.
This year through February, U.S. sales of the Pacifica are down 24 percent to 14,817 units while Grand Caravan deliveries have dropped 27 percent to 19,634.
FCA had an 88-day supply of Pacificas and a 20-day supply of Grand Caravans in the United States as of March 1, according to the Automotive News Data Center.
Although FCA has not disclosed future product plans, Unifor officials have said recently the plant will be retooled this summer to build an all-wheel-drive version of the Pacifica minivan.
Dave Cassidy, president of Unifor Local 444, which represents workers at the plant, said late Thursday if FCA decides to add product to its lineup, “you’re going to build it in Windsor.”
“We’re going to keep the pressure on the company,” Cassidy said. “Give us whatever they want, we will build.”
The plant first added a third production shift in 1993. Cassidy described the elimination of the third shift as “permanent.”
"But this is not a General Motors Oshawa situation," Cassidy said, referring to GM's plans to shutter a longtime assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, this year.
