The closure of the historic factory is yet another sign of the crisis in the automotive market, increasingly burdened by the global economic and political situation.
We realized on our skin how much global economic and political situation that we are living can affect the quality of life. First the pandemic and the war in Ukraine then literally destabilized the world market, leading to an increase in the cost of raw materials, a delay in production chains and an increase in the cost of fuel, gas and transport costs. One of the sectors most affected by the crisis is the automotive sector, which has been immobilized for months by the semi-conductor and microchip crisis.
In modern cars, in fact, semiconductors and microchips are an integral part of the vehicle, given that on-board computers are now part of the basic instrumentation and many of the safety functions implemented by modern cars are connected to them. This need to implement semiconductors and microchips has been exacerbated by the change that the sector is going through, given that for reasons of global pollution it is veering decisively towards the production of hybrid and electric cars. In these types of cars, the on-board computer is literally indispensable for the functioning of the vehicle, therefore production was blocked by the lack of components.
The semiconductor crisis and the global economic crisis have converged in the automotive market, given that the increase in costs for the production of new concept cars coincided with a phase of crisis in the labor market (mainly caused by the pandemic) and with the inflation (due to multiple factors, including pandemic and war). People are therefore more careful in choosing their investments, especially if they have to start paying for a vehicle that is delayed in being delivered due to problems in finding materials.
Stellantis closes the Belvidere plant, 1,200 workers will lose their jobs
With such a situation it was only a matter of time before the big automakers started making budget and personnel cuts. The first group that decided to take this step, or that in any case was forced to take this decision was Stellarwho communicated in the past few hours the closure of the historic Belvidere plant.
The note published by the group states that the decision was painful, but that it was not possible to do otherwise and the reasons are explained: “Our sector has been negatively influenced by a multitude of factors such as the current coronavirus pandemic and the global shortage of microchips, but the most difficult challenge to face is the increase in costs related to the electrification of the automotive market”.
The union’s protest: “Signal of cruel contempt”
In its press release, Stellantis assured that most of the staff will be repositioned and re-employed and that therefore the company has every intention of keeping as many employees as possible. However, reallocation is a process that involves the need for the employee to move house with the whole family and which could therefore cause many problems. Not everyone, therefore, will have the opportunity to move and in any case some will not be included in this process.
The news was commented on by the metalworkers union Auw. In fact, President Curry accused the company of having made an insensitive choice towards the workers, especially for the communication timing chosen: “Announcing the closure a few weeks before the Christmas holidays is also a sign of cruel contempt”. Things had been going badly for some time, given that only one work shift had been active for three months and many workers had already been called to take forced breaks. The reason for this trend can certainly be found in the lack of microchips, but also in the market trend: the factory only dealt with the production of Cherokee and sales of the model fell by 61% in this 2022.
