DETROIT (AP) — Jeep and Ram maker Stellantis will spend $406 million retooling three Michigan factories so they can build electric vehicles or battery parts to support a strategy of making vehicles powered by both gasoline and batteries.
With its investment announcement Wednesday, the company is taking a step toward meeting some commitments that it agreed to in a new contract ratified last fall by the United Auto Workers union after a bitter six-week strike. It's aimed at countering union arguments that Stellantis won't keep commitments and doesn't want to invest in U.S. factories.
An assembly plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan, north of Detroit, will get the bulk of the investment, $235.5 million, so it can make the battery-powered Ram 1500 pickup truck that will go into production later this year.
The plant, which has been singled out by CEO Carlos Tavares for criticism due to quality problems, also will make a full-size electric pickup with a range-extending gas-powered generator.
In the union contract, which runs through April of 2028, the company agreed to invest $1.4 billion at the Sterling Heights plant.
Stellantis also said it will sink about $97.6 million into the Warren Truck Plant, also north of Detroit, so it can build electric versions of the Jeep Wagoneer large SUV, one of four Jeep EVs scheduled to be produced globally by the end of next year.
The company promised in the union contract that Warren Truck would get roughly $600 million of investment.
An engine factory in Dundee, Michigan, southwest of Detroit, will get over $73 million so it can assemble, weld and test battery trays for future EVs, as well as make front and rear beams for large vehicles. Battery tray production will start this year, and the beams in 2026, Stellantis said in a statement.
The Dundee factory is supposed to get $770 million, according to the contract.
Union President Shawn Fain has threatened to strike the company over delays in its commitment in the contract to reopen the shuttered assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois, in 2027, and open a new battery plant there in 2028. At stake are more than 2,700 jobs.
But the company, which has reported poor sales and earnings this year, has delayed the reopening given what it calls unfavorable “market conditions.” Stellantis says it will eventually meet its commitment to reopen the plant.
Yet no date has been given for the company to restart the factory or to open a new battery plant and a new parts warehouse, both which were also promised in the contract agreement that ended the UAW’s strike against Stellantis last year. At stake are more than 2,700 jobs.
A union spokesman declined comment Wednesday on the company's announcement.
In the company statement, Tavares thanks workers at Sterling Heights for gearing up to build the electric Ram in record time. "With these investments supporting both Jeep and Ram, we’re adding innovations to our Michigan manufacturing footprint to support a multi-energy approach that is laser-focused on customer demand,” he said.
FILE - A Stellantis logo is shown at the North American International Auto Show, Sept. 13, 2023, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs is due in court Tuesday on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges. An indictment says the music mogul “engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals.”
Combs was arrested late Monday in Manhattan, roughly six months after federal authorities conducting a sex trafficking investigation raided his luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami.
Over the past year, Combs has been sued by people who say he subjected them to physical or sexual abuse. He has denied many of those allegations, and his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said outside the courthouse Tuesday morning that Combs, 54, would plead not guilty and that he would “fight like hell” to get his client released from custody.
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Prosecutors say the violence Combs exacted on his victims was so extreme that he should be denied bail.
In a detention letter written for the federal judge overseeing the music mogul's case, prosecutors described how Combs would assault women, employees and others “by throwing objects at them, choking them, pushing them, kicking them, and slamming them against walls and on to the ground.”
The letter says the violence was sometimes spontaneous and sometimes premeditated, including “resorting to kidnapping and arson when the defendant’s power and control were threatened.”
Prosecutors say Combs’ “disposition to violence cannot be reasonably prevented through bail conditions.”
The letter also says Combs should be denied bail because he has already reached out to potential witnesses in the case and that further attempts at witness tampering are likely.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams says Combs did not act alone.
During a news conference Tuesday, Williams said Combs’ security and household staff, as well as operators high up in the music industry were complicit. Williams says they cleaned up damaged hotel rooms and "delivered large quantities of cash to Combs to pay for the commercial sex workers.”
Williams says the investigation is ongoing, and is urging "anyone with information about this case to come forward and to do it quickly.”
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, whose office is bringing the case against Sean “Diddy” Combs, says the music mogul led a criminal organization that carried out kidnapping, forced labor and sex trafficking, among other crimes.
Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Williams said authorities will seek to have Combs detained while he awaits trial.
He spoke before a display board showing images of some of the items recovered in searches of Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami in March, including AR-15s and a drum magazine containing dozens of rounds of ammunition. He says agents also seized electronic devices that contain images and videos of sexual encounters.
Williams says: “Combs led and participated in a racketeering conspiracy that used the business empire he controlled to carry out criminal activity, including sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and the obstruction of justice.”
Combs' lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, has said he will fight to keep his client free. He says Combs is innocent and will plead not guilty.
Comb’s former longtime girlfriend, whom he was seen attacking in a March 2016 security video, has declined to comment on the federal case against him.
Douglas Wigdor, an attorney for the singer Cassie Ventura, said in a statement released before Combs was due to appear in court Tuesday that neither he nor his client have anything to say on the matter.
Wigdor says: “We appreciate your understanding and if that changes, we will certainly let you know.”
Ventura reached a settlement with Combs last November, one day after filing a lawsuit containing allegations of beatings and abuse by the music producer.
Outside the Manhattan courthouse early Tuesday, Combs’ lawyer, noted that his client came to New York City voluntarily because they knew the charges were coming.
Marc Agnifilo said: “Not a lot of defendants do that. He came to New York to, to basically engage the court system and start the case.”
Though the indictment was not unsealed at the time of his comments, Agnifilo said they know what the charges will be and that Combs is “innocent of these charges.” He vowed to “fight like hell” to get Combs released from federal custody.
The indictment alleges Combs hit, kicked and threw objects at victims, and sometimes dragged them by their hair, causing injuries that often took days or weeks to heal. It says Combs also threw people around, choked and shoved them.
Prosecutors say his employees and associates witnessed his violence and, rather than intervening, helped him cover it up, including by preventing victims from leaving, and locating and contacting victims who attempted to flee.
The indictment describes Combs as the head of a criminal enterprise that engaged or attempted to engage in activities including sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.
He’s accused of striking, punching and dragging women on numerous occasions, throwing objects and kicking them, and enlisting his personal assistants, security and household staff to help him hide it all.
Lawrence Stark, of the Bronx borough of New York, makes comments in support of Sean "Diddy" Combs, outside Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
