Clarios shifting some production out of Toledo as strike enters fifth week
Vehicle battery manufacturer Clarios is shifting some production out of a striking plant near Toledo, Ohio. More than 400 members of UAW Local 12 have been on strike at the plant since May 8.
Beginning this week, the Ford and General Motors supplier is shifting some production from the Holland, Ohio, plant to a factory in St. Joseph, Mo., according to a representative of the Missouri plant’s union local, IUE-CWA Local 86116. Union members there plan to accept the work.
The UAW has been in touch with IUE-CWA Local 86116 “since day one,” UAW Region 2B Director David Green told Automotive News. But, according to the representative in Missouri, the UAW has not asked the IUE-CWA to reject the shifted production. The representative said he did not know how much production will be shifted to the St. Joseph plant. Before the strike, the Holland plant was producing 125,000 to 150,000 batteries a week.
The two plants are both sites where former owner Johnson Controls began producing absorbent glass mat batteries in 2012.
According to a union representative for a Clarios plant in Kernersville, N.C., that is not equipped to receive production shifted from Ohio, it would take 30 to 60 days to equip another plant to do so.
“We have brought in team members and are using resources across our manufacturing network to ensure we are fulfilling our customer commitments,” said Kris Sherman, Clarios director of communications.
