The maker of Ram trucks and Jeeps announced Thursday that it will temporarily lay off 900 workers at five U.S. facilities. The decision by Stellantis comes after President Donald Trump’s tariffs were announced this week.
According to a company spokesperson, the layoffs will not affect the Belvidere assembly plant. It’s scheduled to re-open in 2027 to build a mid-size pickup truck.
However, as a result of pausing production at several of Stellantis’ Canadian and Mexican plants, there will be temporary layoffs at the Warren Stamping and Sterling Stamping plants (Michigan) as well as the Indiana Transmission Plant, Kokomo Transmission Plant and Kokomo Casting Plant (Indiana).
Here is an email that went out to employees on Thursday morning from Antonio Filosa, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the Americas:
Dear Colleagues,
I want to thank you for your efforts as we continue to execute our recovery plan for North America. Your hard work is paying off as we’ve seen consecutive monthly market share growth since January and both the Jeep and Ram brands saw their best U.S. retail sales month of the year in March.
With the new automotive sector tariffs now in effect, it will take our collective resilience and discipline to push through this challenging time. But we will quickly adapt to these policy changes and will protect our company, maintain our competitive edge and continue delivering great products to our customers.
We are continuing to assess the medium- and long-term effects of these tariffs on our operations, but also have decided to take some immediate actions, including temporarily pausing production at some of our Canadian and Mexican assembly plants. Those actions will impact some employees at several of our U.S. powertrain and stamping facilities that support those operations.
These are actions that we do not take lightly, but they are necessary given the current market dynamics.
We understand that the current environment creates uncertainty. Be assured that we are very engaged with all of our key stakeholders, including top government leaders, unions, suppliers and dealers in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, as we work to manage and adapt to these changes. We are focused on taking responsible actions that are in the best interests of our customers, our business partners and you, our employees – wherever you work.
Together, I know we will rise to these new challenges, just as we have always done in the past and we will emerge even stronger.
I will continue to keep you informed via updates on The Hub as the situation progresses.
Thank you all for your continued hard work and dedication.
Sincerely,
Antonio