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Global automaker Stellantis said Thursday that it will pause production at two North American facilities and temporarily layoff 900 U.S. workers as a result of tariffs on the automotive sector that are now in effect.
A spokesperson for the company said the layoffs will impact workers at three Indiana facilities.
The tariffs in question—25% on imports from Canada and Mexico—originally took effect last month, but President Donald Trump granted a one-month exemption for U.S. automakers. Those tariffs went into effect on Thursday.
Now that the tariffs are in place, Stellantis Chief Operating Officer for the Americas Antonio Filosa said in a letter to employees Thursday that the company is pausing production at its Windsor Assembly Plant in Canada for the weeks of April 7 and 14, as well as the Toluca Assembly Plant in Mexico beginning April 7.
“With the new automotive sector tariffs now in effect, it will take our collective resilience and discipline to push through this challenging time,” Filosa said. “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.”
As a result of the production pauses, Stellantis said it is also conducting temporary layoffs at five U.S.-based facilities that support the Canadian and Mexican plants.
The layoffs will affect workers at three of the automaker’s plants in Kokomo: the Indiana Transmission Plant, Kokomo Transmission Plant and Kokomo Casting Plant. The company’s Warren Stamping and Sterling Stamping plants in Michigan are also being impacted.
A spokesperson for Stellantis declined to specify how many of the affected workers are located in Indiana or how long the temporary layoffs are expected to last.
“These are actions that we do not take lightly, but they are necessary given the current market dynamics,” Filosa said in the letter.
In an email to Inside INdiana Business, the spokesperson said the company will “continue to monitor the situation to assess whether further action is required.”
In a statement provided to Reuters on Thursday, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain said, “Stellantis continues to play games with workers’ lives. As we’ve shown time and again, they’ve got the money, the capacity, the product, and the workforce to employ thousands more UAW members in Michigan, Indiana, and beyond. These layoffs are a completely unnecessary choice that the company is making.”
The automaker’s announcement comes less than a day after Trump announced sweeping tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners with the goal of boosting domestic manufacturing.
When he granted the one-month exemption in March, the president said he spoke with leaders from the “big three” automakers—Ford, General Motors and Stellantis—and told them they should move their production to the U.S.
Stellantis is the 21st-largest employer in Indiana with about 6,600 full-time Hoosier employees, according to IBJ research.
Shares of Stellantis were down nearly 8% to $10.40 per share at midday trading Thursday.
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