DETROIT (WWJ) -- Job cuts are already coming to Michigan — at least temporarily — due to President Donald Trump's tariffs affecting the automotive industry.
Stellantis announced Thursday that it will be temporarily pausing production at its Windsor Assembly Plant — a Stellantis Canada auto factory in Windsor, Ontario — for the weeks of April 7 and 14.
Due to the production pause, there will be temporary layoffs at the Warren and Sterling stamping plants in Metro Detroit, Stellantis said, as well as the Indiana and Kokomo transmission plants, and Kokomo casting facility in Indiana.
These temporary layoffs are expected to impact 900 U.S. employees in total, with operations expected to resume at the Windsor facility the week of April 21, the automaker said.
The company will also pause production at the Toluca assembly plant in Mexico for the month of April, starting on April 7, Stellantis said.
It's not yet clear if there are more layoffs to come. Stellantis, which owns car brands like Jeep, Citroën and Ram, said it plans to continuously monitor the situation to determine next steps.
In a email from North American Chief Operating Officer Antonio Filosa sent to employees and obtained by the Associated Press, Filosa said that Stellantis will quickly adapt to the policy changes imposed by Trump. He noted that the actions that the company is taking “are necessary given the current market dynamics.”
“We understand that the current environment creates uncertainty,” Filosa wrote. “Be assured that we are very engaged with all of our key stakeholders, including top government leaders, unions, suppliers and dealers in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, as we work to manage and adapt to these changes.”
Late last month Trump said he was placing 25% tariffs on auto imports, a move the White House claimed would foster domestic manufacturing but could also put a financial squeeze on automakers that depend on global supply chains. Later Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada will match U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25% auto tariffs with a tariff on vehicles imported from the U.S.
Speaking live on WWJ Newsradio 950 on Wednesday, auto analyst John McElroy said that, thanks to Trump's tariffs, consumers shopping for a new car may be in trouble.
“You’re going to see car prices go up,” McElroy said. “Now, one thing that the president did hint at is that maybe they’re going to allow you to deduct the interest on a car loan from your taxes. So that would help mitigate it somewhat, but there’s no question that cars and the parts that are used to service and repair them are going to go up in cost.”
While Trump has said that companies can avoid the tariffs by moving manufacturing to the U.S., McElroy says it’s not that simple, as several moving parts are at play.
“It takes a couple of years to be able to move all the production equipment into an existing plant, get all the supply chain now lined up, hire the workers, get everything in place, so yes, it can happen, but it’s going to take several years before it does if it does,” he said. (Read more on this here).
The Associated Press contributed to this report.