Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, said on Friday that it will let go of about 400 paid U.S. workers in order to cut costs, improve efficiency, and speed up plans to make more electric cars.
The Italian-American company said it is cutting about 400 jobs in the U.S. in its engineering and technology and software departments as of March 31. This is about 2% of all the jobs it has cut around the world. Stellantis offered buyouts to groups of U.S. workers twice last year. In November, they gave 6,400 paid U.S. workers money to leave the company.
It said, “As the auto industry continues to face unprecedented uncertainties and heightened competitive pressures around the world, Stellantis continues to make the appropriate structural decisions across the enterprise to improve efficiency and optimise our cost structure.”
In the past year, both Ford Motor and General Motors have promised to cut costs even more and lay off workers.
This month, Shawn Fain, President of the United Auto Workers, said that Stellantis had fired 2,000 contract workers, calling the move “about corporate greed.” He said that under the UAW’s agreement with Stellantis last year, about 3,000 casual workers were given full-time jobs.
Stellantis said in December that it would briefly cut one shift at its assembly plant in Detroit that makes Jeep SUVs and production at its assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio, that makes the Jeep Wrangler could go down.
Stellantis offered buyouts to workers last year, saying that the company needed to make “preparations for the transition to electric vehicles.” He had earlier told employees that an analysis of the business “made it clear that we must become more efficient.”
Stellantis wants to have at least 25 battery-electric cars in the US by 2030.
The company didn’t say how many employees offered to be bought out, but in February it said that its North American staff had dropped from 88,835 a year earlier to 81,341.
The company agreed in the UAW deal to buy out veteran production and skilled trade workers for $50,000 each in 2024 and 2026.
