Dodge Grand Caravan Gets a Date With Death; Plant to Shed 1,500 Jobs

It’s not unexpected, but it still comes as a blow. The impending loss of the Dodge Grand Caravan stands to sadden lovers of the industry’s longest running, most inflation-resistant minivan, but it’s a truly bitter pill for workers at Fiat Chrysler’s Windsor Assembly Plant.

As reported yesterday by Canada’s Financial Post, the Grand Caravan — darling of Lee Iacocca, chariot to young soccer players for decades — will cease production at the end of May.

The Windsor, Ontario plant will shed its third shift on June 29th, leading to the layoff of 1,500 workers. Like the Grand Caravan itself, those jobs were running on borrowed time.

After years of rumors and speculation, last year’s reveal of the downmarket Chrysler Voyager signalled that the aging Grand Caravan’s demise was both near and unavoidable. FCA originally planned to axe the third shift last September, but fate (read: an uptick in sales) intervened.

“We worked to prevent this shift loss with the full understanding of the devastating affect [sic] that this would have on our membership,” Unifor Local 444 President Dave Cassidy said in a statement. “Now we will ensure that these workers receive the support that they need in this process as we continue to fight for new product for Windsor Assembly with the goal of preserving and increasing these good paying auto manufacturing jobs.”

FCA spokeswoman Lou Ann Gosselin told FP, “The company will make every effort to place indefinitely laid off hourly employees in open full-time positions as they become available based on seniority and will offer retirement packages to eligible employees.”

The shift cut will surely factor into collective bargaining talks scheduled to kick off this summer between FCA and autoworkers’ union Unifor. Declining Canadian production volume is an ongoing trend as demands for fresh product increasingly fall on deaf ears in Detroit. Last year saw the end of vehicle production at General Motors’ Oshawa, Ontario plant.

While the Windsor plant has gained a new product, it’s simply a variant of the existing Chrysler Pacifica minivan. As Tim Cain told you recently, the minivan segment is not a growth segment. Not by a long shot.

Elsewhere in Ontario, FCA’s Brampton plant stands to lose the Chrysler 300 before long as sales of the company’s ancient crop of rear-drive throwbacks slowly dwindle. With FCA’s product pipeline already notoriously unpredictable, and with the automaker poised to merge with France’s PSA Group, the near future looks rocky for FCA’s Canuck workers. Fingers are no doubt crossed in the hopes that brighter days lie ahead.

[Image: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]