The big labor contract between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the United Auto Workers is likely to lead to some very serious production shakeups across the company’s North American manufacturing operations.
That’s according to a new report from Automotive News, which details the sweeping changes at no fewer than five production facilities in Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Mexico, and Poland. So without further ado, here’s what’s going where, presented in easy to digest bullet form.
- Ram 1500 production would move from Warren, MI to Sterling Heights, MI
- Warren, MI would be retooled for unibody production and would handle the Jeep Grand Wagoneer and could potentially build Grand Cherokees to ease the strain on Detroit’s Jefferson North factory
- Chrysler 200 production would move from Sterling Heights, MI to Toluca, Mexico
- Dodge Dart production would move from Belvidere, IL to Toluca, Mexic
- Fiat 500 production, which is currently handled by Toluca, would be concentrated in Poland, where the Euro-spec Cinquecento is built
- Jeep Cherokee production would move from Toledo, OH to Belvidere, IL to make room for Wrangler and Wrangler Pickup production
Like we said, those are some big changes. But, as FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne said in an earlier interview with Automotive News, this kind of shakeup would make a lot of sense. In that August interview the exec said that automakers moved truck production to Mexico because they were “threatened” by the UAW.
“The only thing [the UAW] want is to move the truck back. Which is right. If you move the truck back here, which is [the UAW’s] domain, [and move] all the cars that we get killed on somewhere else, we could actually make sense of this bloody industry and actually increase the number of people employed in this country and really share wealth because we are making money,” Marchionne told AN.