Major Auto Manufacturer Lays Off 900 American Workers Due To Trump Tariffs
NBC news business and data correspondent Brian Chung joined MSNBC anchor José Díaz-Balart on Thursday to discuss President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs, including a 25% tariff on all auto imports.
“And Brian, Ford and Stellantis announced very different reactions to the tariffs. What did they say?” Díaz-Balart asked Chung.
“Yeah, they’re responding to that 25 percent tariff on any automotive product that comes into the United States with auto parts also looped into that announcement as well. Stellantis, which is the maker of Dodge Rams in addition to Jeep vehicles, saying that they were going to temporarily pause production at plants in both Canada and Mexico,” replied Chung, adding:
And just to underscore how intertwined the automotive industry is in North America, they also say that for that reason they’re going to have to pause production or rather put temporary layoffs in place at two plants in Indiana and also in Michigan. As a result, 900 represented U.S. employees will be temporarily laid off as a result of that. The UAW is striking back at that. They are very much disappointed with that decision.
On the other hand, you also have Ford, which comparatively has a little bit more production in the United States specifically. Ford announcing that they’re going to offer employee pricing to all U. S. shoppers is what they call a handshake deal with every American. They might be trying to take advantage of this from a market share standpoint and say, all right. If everyone else is going to raise prices, then maybe we can try to temporarily cut prices at this moment. But you do have a number of automotive companies that have expressed, and the Ford CEO actually said just a few weeks ago that the tariffs could blow a hole into the automotive industry.
So make no mistake, despite that pricing strategy that Ford is going about. But there is still concern within the U.S. automakers and the big three over what this will do over the long term as sales volumes go down with people balking at higher prices. I was at a dealership earlier on this week where customers were saying, you know what, I might just have to buy a car now because I’m worried about the prices going up by as much as $15,000 on foreign imported vehicles as is projected by Goldman Sachs. These are real costs to real Americans.
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.
