WASHINGTON D.C. – Senator JD Vance (R-OH) is demanding answers from Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, regarding the company’s announcement of nearly 1,200 layoffs at the Jeep Assembly Complex in Toledo, Ohio.
Senator Vance, who visited striking workers at the Jeep Assembly Complex earlier this year, raises concerns over Stallantis’ justifications for the announced layoffs, given the company’s surging profits in the first half of 2023 and its citation of California emissions standards to justify cutting a fifth of its Toledo workforce.
The letter reads, in part:
“Yesterday I received an official notice that Stellantis would be ‘modifying the operating pattern’ at the Toledo Assembly Complex and laying off up to 1,200 workers. I want to understand why you made this decision, how you intend to implement it, and what (if anything) might be done to fix it…
“The notice cited California Air Resources Board (CARB) to justify the layoffs. It explained that the decision reflected ‘the need to balance our production to accommodate the less efficient state-by-state allocation strategy required by the CARB [California Air Resources Board] standards.’ Regulatory burdens can, of course, play a major role in business decisions. Even so, I am surprised that emissions standards would be a challenge for Stellantis given how much emphasis the company has placed on sustainability in recent years and how much it plans to invest to meet its own net-zero emissions goals. It makes little sense that compliance with a four-year-old California regulation should require a plant in Ohio to cut a fifth of its workers.
“I’d like to understand how you reached this conclusion, and I am most interested in your response to the following questions:
How does compliance the CARB emissions standards affect production at the Toledo Assembly Complex? How will compliance affect production decisions and allocation strategies going forward?
How have actions by the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency exacerbated the difficulty of complying with CARB standards?
Did you consider alternatives to the announced changes in the plant’s operations? If so, what were they and how would they implicate employment at the facility?
How does Stellantis intend to respond to evolving regulatory environment regarding automobile emissions? Do you intend to relocate production outside of Ohio? Outside of the United States?
How does Stellantis intend to support the workers who will be laid off? Will the company offer severance or other financial assistance to these workers? Will it provide them with job search and transition support services?”
Read the full letter here and below.
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