One morning in the middle of October, more than 1,500 people will head to their shift at Fiat Chrysler’s van assembly plant in Windsor for the last time.With the entire third shift eliminated, and sales of the plant’s bread-and-butter minivans dwindling across North America, some people worry the company is heading down the same path as General Motors’ ill-fated Oshawa assembly line. A five-week shutdown of the Windsor plant this summer and shorter shutdown of the company’s Brampton plant earlier this year only added to the air of gloom.The company says it’s staying put, pointing to a $355 million (U.S.) investment in the plant announced earlier this year, and the addition of the lower-priced Voyager minivan to the Windsor lineup. There’s also Fiat Chrysler’s plant in Brampton, which produces muscle cars and a few sedan models.“FCA Canada is the second-largest producer of automobiles in the country and the third largest in terms of vehicle sales with a network of 440 dealerships. As a company, we have been committed to Canada and will continue to be committed to Canada,” said Fiat Chrysler spokesperson LouAnn Gosselin.But others wonder about the future of the Windsor plant — which has 6,100 employees — given that it only produces minivans, which doesn’t seem to be exactly a recipe for long-term security. While FCA’s popular Ram pickups, built mainly in Warren, Mich., helped drive the company’s North American profits to $1.75 billion in quarterly earnings released this week, auto industry analyst Tyson Jominy points out that sales of minivans — like the Chrysler Pacifica and Dodge Grand Caravan produced in Windsor — have been plunging for years.“Things are pretty bleak for minivans right now. They’re pretty much in free-fall. There’s not a lot of new products coming out,” said Jominy, vice-president of data and analytics at J.D. Power’s PI ...
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