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ANN ARBOR, Mich.— The auto industry is big business in Michigan, and a major round of layoffs is revving the issue into high gear for industry workers in the critical swing state as they contemplate whether to entrust their vote — and their livelihood — to former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris.
Stellantis, which manufactures Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles, announced last month it will lay off 2,450 workers at its Warren plant.While industry jobs in the state have been declining since 1990, Michigan auto workers told The Post that the Biden administration’s electric-vehicles mandates are to blame this time.
United Auto Workers member Isaiah Gordon, 24, works on hybrid batteries at Ford’s Rawsonville plant and said the forced transition to electric vehicles is damaging the industry.“I’m sure all the people I work with are glad to have jobs.
But the problem is in these electric-vehicle departments, you’re laying people off,” Gordon told The Post.Fellow UAW member Chris Vitale, a technician mechanic for Chrysler, agreed, saying electric cars require considerably less labor to produce than gas-powered vehicles.“Putting an electric motor together is like building a pinwheel or a paper airplane, there’s some level of work that’s involved with it, but the skill level really isn’t there,” Vitale told The Post.Rep.Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) echoed that sentiment — and decried how it harms auto workers.“Less parts mean less employees.
That’s why they’re doing the layoffs.Because they can’t sell the vehicles that the government, particularly Kamala Harris, is mandating them to buy,” McClain told The Post.
“Listen, you wanna buy an EV car? Great,” she continued.“But the auto workers, the auto makers know that we can’t survive because the infrastructure isn’t there on EVs.
Nobody wants to buy them.”Ford slashed more than 1,000 jobs at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn after drastically s...