Windsor, Ontario — The Fiat Chrysler Automobile (FCA) assembly plant in Windsor, Ontario will idle its minivan plant from Jan. 13 through the 20th to “align production with demand.”
The automaker would not elaborate on the temporary layoff. Originally, FCA said it would only idle the plant the week of Jan. 20, but added the week of Jan. 13 in a Wednesday release.
About 6,500 employees build the Chrysler Pacifica and Dodge Grand Caravan at the Windsor plant. Canadian Pacifica sales were down 38 percent last year to 3,731 units, while Grand Caravan sales in Canada were down 15 percent to 27,362 units last year.
In the United States, Pacifica sales totalled 97,705—a 17 percent drop from a year ago. The U.S. Caravan sales also fell 19 percent to 122,648 units.
The two-week shutdown comes as the automaker prepares to end the plant’s midnight shift at the end of March. The company had originally announced its intention to cut the shift in the summer of 2018, but the move has been postponed several times. In November, FCA confirmed the shift will be cancelled at the end of 2019’s first quarter.
The FCA Windsor plant also made headlines earlier this week when an employee died during their shift. According to Ministry of Labour spokesperson Janet Deline, the employee was found unconscious while sitting at a workstation on Monday, Jan. 6.
“The Ministry has confirmed that the worker has passed away,” said Deline in an email statement. “However, we are still waiting to determine if this incident is work-related.”
And FCA spokesperson allegedly confirmed this was an “apparent non-occupational incident.” Grief counselling has been offered to employees on all three shifts.
The FCA assembly plant in Windsor has been a part of the Canadian automotive landscape since 1928.
