TOLEDO, Ohio — The Toledo Assembly Complex has begun producing the newest model of the Jeep Gladiator, Stellantis announced Tuesday.
The Gladiator has been produced in Toledo since it was introduced in 2019. Since then more than 345,000 of the vehicles have rolled off the line, the company said.
"The world’s most off-road capable midsize truck offers several new features for the 2024 model year, including a new seven-slot grille, larger 12.3-inch Uconnect 5 touchscreen, 12-way power adjustable front seats and standard side-curtain airbags. Together, these new features add greater capability, more refinement, new technology and more standard safety features," according to a news release from Stellantis.
The new model year debuts about three months after a strike shut down production at the Toledo Assembly complex for six weeks in 2023. Toledo's nearly 6,000 Jeep workers were among the United Auto Workers members around the country who struck Stellantis, Ford and General Motors.
The resulting contract deals were widely seen as a victory for the UAW. The companies agreed to dramatically raise pay for top-scale assembly plant workers, with increases and cost-of-living adjustments that would translate into 33% wage gains. Top assembly plant workers are to receive immediate 11% raises and will earn roughly $42 an hour when the contracts expire in April of 2028.
Under the agreements, the automakers also ended many of the multiple tiers of wages they had used to pay different workers. They also agreed in principle to bring new electric-vehicle battery plants into the national union contract. This provision will give the UAW an opportunity to unionize the EV battery plants, which will represent a rising share of industry jobs in the years ahead.
Gladiator production happens at the South plant portion of the Toledo Assembly Complex, while the North plant produces Jeep Wranglers.
Toledo's Jeep plant had been the home of the Cherokee until the final Toledo-built model of that vehicle rolled off the line in 2017, when Cherokee production was moved to Belvidere, Ill.. Two years later, Toledo's Jeep plant began producing Gladiators.
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