The Windsor site was also down the weeks of Aug. 16 and 23 for its regularly scheduled summer shutdown. Stellantis resumed regular output in Windsor on July 5, after the plant sat idle nearly every day since March 29. The plant resumed operation the week of May 31, but not at full capacity.
Even though Windsor resumed a two-shift operation on July 5, the automaker warned at the time that “scheduling is still released on a week-to-week basis.”
About 4,500 people, the majority of them Unifor members, build the Chrysler Pacifica, Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid and Chrysler Grand Caravan in Canada, as well as the Chrysler Voyager for the U.S. market.
“This chip issue has been a disaster; very frustrating,” Unifor Local 444 President Dave Cassidy said in a post on the chapter’s official Facebook page.
According to the latest estimate from AutoForecast Solutions (AFS), the microchip shortage has cost automakers 2.1 million units of production in North America alone, through the week of Aug. 23.
AFS says automakers have seen nearly seven million vehicles trimmed from global production plans due to the shortage and the firm now expects them to lose 8.1 million units of production before the crisis ends.
Stellantis is just the latest automaker to cancel some Canadian production.
Ford last week said its Oakville Assembly Plant in Oakville, Ontario, as well as Kansas City Assembly Plant in Missouri, will be down the week of Aug. 30. Ford’s Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan will operate just one shift that week.
The Oakville plant produces the Ford Edge and Lincoln Nautilus crossovers. The F-150 is produced at the Kansas City and Dearborn factories.
