Stellantis laying off 1,139 Toledo Jeep workers, as global auto jobs bloodbath expands

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On Wednesday, United Auto Workers Local 12 officials informed workers at the Toledo Assembly Complex that Stellantis management planned to indefinitely lay off 1,139 workers starting as early as January 5, 2025. According to the union, the company is eliminating a shift on the South Assembly side of the plant, reducing production of the Jeep Gladiator JT model from two shifts to one. 

UAW Local 12 President Bruce Baumhower told local media that the 1,139 job cuts included 500 workers from the Gladiator lines and 639 on the Wrangler lines in the north plant.

In a statement released to local news media, company officials said, “These are difficult actions to take, but they are necessary to enable the Company to regain its competitive edge and eventually return production to prior levels.” 

In its letter to the Local 12 membership, the UAW Jeep Unit Executive Committee did not even hint that the union bureaucracy had any intention of opposing the brutal job cuts. On the contrary, the union officials simply acted as messenger boys for the giant corporation. 

These layoffs are part of a wave of mass job cuts in the aftermath of last year’s UAW-Stellantis contract, which was hailed by UAW President Shawn Fain and US President Joe Biden as a “record” job-creating labor agreement. They follow the elimination of 2,400 jobs at the Warren Truck Assembly Plant in suburban Detroit. 

Thousands of other workers have been laid off in Detroit, Toledo and Kokomo, along with 2,400 supplemental or temporary part-time workers who were fired after being promised that they would be rolled over to full-time positions. In addition, Stellantis is threatening up to 25,000 jobs in Italy. 

Stellantis and other automakers were given a free hand by the UAW bureaucracy to slash tens of thousands of jobs as they shifted the cost of the transition to electric vehicle production onto the backs of workers. To cover its tracks, the UAW President Shawn Fain is carrying out a bogus “Keep the Promise” public relations campaign, which includes empty threats of a future strike if Stellantis does not uphold its supposed job commitments.