Stellantis Lays Off Hundreds Of Macomb County Workers After Walkouts

MACOMB COUNTY, MI — Stellantis laid off 525 autoworkers from two Macomb County plants after thousands of United Auto Worker members walked off the job at the automaker's most profitable plant Monday.

The Detroit Big Three automaker laid off 400 workers from the Sterling Stamping in Sterling Heights and 125 workers from the Warren Stamping plant in Warren. Both factories make parts for the Ram 1500. The layoffs were effective Monday.

There are now 2,045 Stellantis autoworkers from plants in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana that are on temporary layoff, the automaker said.

The layoffs come after Stellantis said it was "outraged" United Auto Worker's President Shawn Fain ordered 6,800 United Auto Worker members to walk out of its Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, the automaker's largest plant and where it builds the popular Ram light-duty pickup trucks.

The union also ordered 5,000 members to walk out of the General Motors Arlington Assembly plant. The Texas plant makes General Motor's "most profitable vehicles," the union said.

"Another record quarter, another record year. As we've said for months: record profits equal record contracts," United Auto Worker's President Shawn Fain said in a news release. "It’s time GM workers, and the whole working class, get their fair share."

The new round of walkouts now make 45,000 United Auto Workers members striking at Detroit's Big Three: Ford Motor Company, General Motors and Stellantis.

General Motors said they are "disappointed by the escalation of this unnecessary and irresponsible strike," adding they presented the union a "record offer" last week that would push a GM hourly employee represented by the union to $40.39 per hour by the end of the agreement, up from $32.32 currently.

The historic UAW strike against Detroit's Big Three began on Sept. 8 after the union's contract expired without a new one in place. It's the first time ever the union launched a strike against all three automakers at the same time.