A flag bearing the Stellantis logo
by David Shepardson
Stellantis announced Monday that it was offering voluntary severance pay to 6,400 employees in the United States.
The automobile group, parent company of Chrysler, is striving to reduce its costs to finance the transition to electric vehicles and the wage agreement concluded between the major American automakers and the United Auto Workers union after six weeks of strike.
The severance package will be offered to approximately half of Stellantis’ non-union employees in the United States, of whom there are approximately 12,700. Approximately 2,500 other Stellantis employees in the United States are unionized and are not affected by this proposal. These numbers do not include employees paid by the hour.
Employees must have at least five years of seniority to be eligible for this compensation, Stellantis said. If they accept it, they will leave the group before the end of December.
Stellantis said it was taking “the necessary structural initiatives to protect (its) business and the company”, while referring to preparation “for the transition to electric vehicles”.
The group led by Carlos Tavares already announced in April a voluntary departure plan concerning 33,500 employees in the United States, of which 31,000 are paid hourly and around 2,500 are salaried.
Mark Stewart, head of the North American business, told his employees that month that a review of the business had “clearly established that we need to become more efficient.”
In October 2022, Stellantis offered voluntary severance pay to its employees in the United States aged at least 55 and with at least 10 years of seniority in the company.
The group declared on October 31 that the strike led by UAW in the United States would cost it this year around three billion euros in turnover and less than 750 million in terms of profitability.
(Written by David Shepardson, French version Bertrand Boucey)