TOLEDO, Ohio — For 46 days Stellantis workers at the Jeep Assembly Complex were on strike. One of the things they were fighting for was to make supplemental or temporary workers full-time. Stellantis agreed, allowing 900 supplemental workers to become full-time.
"I was excited, I was ecstatic, finally," Heather Taft said. "Six years later, I made it. I'm finally going to be full-time."
Now, supplemental workers are being offered full-time positions. But some are being offered jobs at out-of-town sites. 372 are staying in Toledo at the Jeep Assembly Complex, 508 are being offered jobs in Detroit and 20 are being offered jobs in Perrysburg.
Taft has worked at Toledo Assembly Complex for six years and said her offer is in Detroit.
"So now my seven-minute drive to Jeep, where I love my job, I go every day," Taft said. "Now I'm going to have an hour-and-a-half drive to Detroit."
Why is this all happening? United Auto Workers Local 12 President Bruce Baumhower said it's because of emission regulations in certain states.
"There are 14 states in our country who won't allow our cars in their lots, because the environmental people who want us to have full electric cars," he said.
Baumhower said as a result, there has been a slowdown in sales. He added that Stellantis doesn't need as many workers on the assembly line building cars that can't be sold.
"I'm thinking of all those tools we have in the box, I'm not sure if any of our members will be on the street," Baumhower said.
This is something Baumhower wanted members to know at a Local 12 meeting Friday, telling WTOL 11 the situation is still fluid.
That's got union members like Taft feeling they're in the dark. She feels like she doesn't have a choice on whether to take the job in Detroit.
"I have to," Taft said. "I have kids to feed, I have a house to pay for. It's that or lose your job."
Multiple sources close to the situation tell WTOL 11 that these are not additional layoffs and are transfers.