The UAW has said Stellantis wants the unilateral right to close or sell off 18 facilities, including some assembly plants, powertrain plants and parts depots.
CNBC reported Monday that manufacturing facilities included in the proposal are Tipton Transmission Plant in Indiana; the partially decommissioned Trenton Engine Complex; the already idled Mount Elliott Tool & Die in Michigan; and the idled Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois. A Detroit warehouse, office space and the automaker’s North American headquarters and technology center, a 500-acre campus in metro Detroit, are also included in the plan, CNBC reported.
Under the Stellantis proposal, the idled Belvidere Assembly Plant would be turned into a parts megahub, 10 Mopar parts and distribution centers could be closed, and its North American headquarters in suburban Detroit could be sold, CNBC reported.
According to CNBC, discussions have also taken place about using part of Belvidere for electric vehicle battery components.
CNBC reported that a focal point of the plan is the possible closures of 10 Mopar units, which are spread across the country, to consolidate them into larger Amazon-like distribution centers.
CNBC reported that it’s not guaranteed the facilities would close under a labor deal, but Stellantis is required to include potential closures or sales of any location where a UAW member works, a company source told the outlet. CNBC pointed out that the Detroit Free Press reported in 2022 that the company could lease a portion of the headquarters complex.
Speaking Tuesday on WWJ-AM (950) in Detroit, Stewart said the plans for its headquarters were about repurposing underutilized buildings and not about moving out.
“This is our North America headquarters, it will be our North America headquarters, but like everyone in a hybrid working environment … we have a lot of facilities in Auburn Hills we’re not using today, so we’re looking at other use cases,” he said. “We’re certainly not leaving this footprint in any shape, form or fashion.”
Stewart told reporters Saturday that its plans for Mopar wouldn’t reduce jobs.
Stewart said the company needs to make investments in Mopar, but it doesn’t make sense to do so for some facilities because they aren’t in the right locations. Stewart said Stellantis is looking at its distribution chain and its ability to “get things to our customers faster and at the best cost structure from a transportation standpoint.”
“The vast majority of that proposal, it’s about modernizing our operations, a lot of it in Mopar, enabling us to run our PDCs, our part distribution centers in a really efficient manner [and], at the same time, preserving the same number of jobs,” Stewart told reporters Saturday.
“There’s no job elimination with that. We have a lot of older PDCs which need to be modernized and a lot of the buildings they’re in, many of which are rented, are not the right ones for what we can do with today’s racking, storage and all the technologies that have really developed.””