Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has one again extended the life of the midnight shift at its minivan plant in Windsor, Ontario.
The automaker has been attempting to end production on the third shift for nearly a year, but continues to change the end date.
“FCA notified Unifor today that it is adjusting the start date of the two-shift operation at the Windsor Assembly Plant to begin on July 13,” FCA Canada spokeswoman Lou Ann Gosselin said.
She declined to provide a reason why.
About 6,500 workers build the Chrysler Pacifica and Voyager and Dodge Grand Caravan in Windsor. When the third shift ends, about 1,500 will lose their jobs.
Pacifica sales in the U.S. were down 17 percent to 97,705 in 2019, while Caravan sales fell 19 percent to 122,648 units. Canadian Pacifica sales were down 38 percent to 3,731 in 2019 while Grand Caravan sales dropped 15 per cent to 27,362.
The Voyager isn’t sold in Canada at the moment, but it is available in the United States.
Monthly sales figures for January and February aren’t available because the automaker now reports sales on a quarterly basis.
FCA said in the summer of 2018 it would end the third shift but since that announcement, has extended the shift’s end date several times.
In November 2019, the company said it would operate the third shift until the end of the first quarter in 2020.