Posts tagged Kokomo
A lot of US autoworkers like the idea of auto tariffs. But some are being laid off as a result
April 8, 2025 // “It’s more of the same from Stellantis, unfortunately,” he told CNN Thursday, the day the layoffs were announced. “Stellantis, which has had several months to prepare, announces it will use employees as collateral damage.” But the options for Stellantis are not good ones. If it assumes the cost of the tariffs on cars assembled in Canada and Mexico, vehicle production will become unprofitable. If it charges customers the full cost of the tariffs, it will probably price them out of the market. Alternatively, automakers could simply decide to no longer build those models.
UAW’s Fain says strike will cripple Stellantis
November 3, 2024 // Kevin Gotinsky, who heads the UAW’s Stellantis Department, described the Local 1166 vote as a low-turnout election, with about 61% voting in favor. He said the union is confident it can get “everybody moving together” going forward, with a more aligned approach over the next three months. More than a dozen locals have withdrawn grievances filed as part of the process, according to the company, but the union can refile them. UAW Stellantis Department Director Kevin Gotinsky speaks during a rally outside of the UAW Local 51 office in Detroit on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024, highlighting Stellantis' refusal to follow through on the $19 billion in product and investment commitments made during the 2023 Stand Up Strike. Strike authorization does not guarantee a strike will happen, but provides leverage for the union as it negotiates with the company, which says a strike under these circumstances would not be legal.
UAW workers at Stellantis could strike over Illinois plant reopening
August 20, 2024 // Last month, the U.S. Energy Department said it planned to award Stellantis $334.8 million to convert the shuttered Belvidere Assembly plant to build EVs and $250 million to convert its Indiana Transmission Plant in Kokomo to produce EV components. The UAW said since 2023 "the company has gone back on its product commitments at Belvidere, and has been unreceptive in talks with the union to stay on track." The UAW added "this glaring violation of the contract imperils all of the other investment commitments the company has made."
AUTOS Ford lays off 700 who were building electric version of F-150
October 17, 2023 // The company said it will temporarily cut one of the three shifts at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan, near the company's main headquarters. It will rotate the layoffs between the three shifts. Ford had temporarily closed the plant this summer to upgrade its production capability, and the company said this latest layoff is related to "multiple constraints, including the supply chain and working through processing and delivering vehicles held for quality checks after restarting production in August."
‘Nothing left’: UAW releases video inside Indiana plant, blasts GM downsizing
June 6, 2023 // In response to the idea that GM could still be making semiconductor chips at the facility, Barnas said, "The business environment of semiconductor manufacturing is complex, very competitive, capital intensive and vastly different than that of the past. Our company doesn’t possess the engineering, manufacturing expertise, facilities nor technology capability to do this capital intensive type of work. All this expertise would be necessary to be competitive in this category of advanced semiconductors production." As an example of the cost, Samsung is spending $17 billion to build a semiconductor factory in Texas and Intel said it is spending $40 billion on chip facilities in Arizona, Ohio and New Mexico. Locally, metro Detroit auto parts supplier Bosch said last year it will invest nearly $300 million to extend semiconductor production in its facility in Reutlingen, Germany, starting in 2025. Currently, GM makes a variety of electronic components for its engines, transmissions and air bag sensors for its vehicles at the Kokomo facility, where 169 people work, according to GM's website.
Stellantis engine parts workers go on strike amid shift to EVs
September 12, 2022 // The UAW is worried about protecting jobs at ICE parts factories and wants to ensure that workers who make batteries have union representation and comparable wages and benefits. The walkout is a early sign of the tension between automakers and the union as the industry shifts to electric vehicles. Stellantis and South Korea’s Samsung SDI Co. announced in July they’re investing $2.5 billion to build a battery plant in Kokomo. The union is worried about protecting jobs at combustion-engine parts factories and wants to ensure that workers who make batteries have UAW representation and comparable wages and benefits. UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada, Jeff Schuster, LMC Automotive,