On Aug. 1 a 57‑year‑old UAW Local 1248 member fell about 25 feet while clearing out a second‑floor office at Stellantis’s Mopar parts center in Center Line, Mich., and died after striking a dumpster. He was wearing a harness that was not tethered; MIOSHA has opened an investigation. This is the third Stellantis‑connected workplace fatality in the Detroit area since Aug. 2024, and each occurred in buildings being emptied, idled, or renovated — highlighting how consolidation, sale‑leasebacks and weakened onsite oversight can create dangerous gaps in safety practices.
Third Worker Killed at Stellantis Site Being Phased Out — Fall‑Protection Failures Expose Safety Gap
Stellantis Keeps Losing Workers Inside the Buildings It's Already Trying to Get Rid Of
On Saturday, Aug. 1, a 57‑year‑old UAW Local 1248 member identified in reporting as Brasher fell roughly 25 feet from a second‑floor loading‑bay opening at Stellantis’s Mopar National Parts Distribution Center in Center Line, Michigan. He struck a dumpster below and died instantly while clearing out decommissioned office equipment.
Local officials and regulators say Brasher was wearing a fall‑protection harness that was not attached to a tether. Michigan’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) confirmed the victim "fell approximately 25 feet into the bin" and has opened a formal investigation. Stellantis says it is cooperating with authorities and has extended condolences to the worker’s family; UAW President Shawn Fain and Vice President Rich Boyer have vowed to demand a full accounting.
Pattern Of Risk In Buildings Being Emptied
Brasher is the third worker connected to Stellantis to die in a Detroit‑area workplace accident in roughly two years. The other two fatalities — Antonio Gaston, 53, at the Toledo Assembly Complex, and Ronald Adams, 63, at the Dundee Engine Plant — also occurred while buildings were being repaired, idled, or renovated rather than during normal production operations. That repeating circumstance is the central concern for safety advocates and union leaders.
Fall protection is not a marginal regulation: for more than a decade, failures in fall‑protection practices have been the most frequently cited category by workplace safety agencies, outpacing machine guarding and lockout/tagout violations. The issue is seldom the absence of harnesses; it is that harnesses only protect workers when clipping in is an uncompromising, enforced habit for every elevated task — including seemingly routine activities such as tossing old chairs or equipment through a loading door during an internal cleanout.
How Finance And Consolidation Can Create Safety Gaps
The office wing where Brasher died had been largely vacated after Stellantis moved Mopar administrative functions to Auburn Hills. The company sold the Center Line property more than a year ago and now operates it on a sale‑leaseback basis. While sale‑leasebacks are a common financing tool, they can blur responsibility for maintaining the physical site: landlords own the structure while the operator runs day‑to‑day activities. Partly decommissioned spaces often fall into a gray area where neither side invests in permanent safety upgrades.
Stellantis is consolidating parts distribution into a new Metro Detroit Megahub in Van Buren Township, a move that will absorb operations from smaller sites like Center Line. In practice, consolidation and cost discipline can mean more half‑empty buildings and more internal cleanouts handled by hourly employees rather than specialized contractors with strict fall‑protection protocols.
Broader Context And Takeaways
According to MIOSHA’s tally cited in reporting, Brasher’s death is at least the 24th workplace fatality recorded in Michigan this year; the state logged 46 workplace deaths for all of 2025. Three recent Stellantis‑connected fatalities clustered in buildings being emptied or renovated point to a systemic problem: the most hazardous work often occurs not on the assembly line — where safety engineering and institutional oversight are robust — but in the facilities on the way out.
Key point: A harness is only effective when workers are supervised, trained, and expected to clip in every time. When those cultural and managerial expectations weaken — particularly during cleanouts, renovations, or decommissioning — the risk of fatal outcomes rises.
MIOSHA’s investigation will determine any specific citations and legal consequences for the Center Line site. That record will matter, but the larger takeaway for industry leaders, regulators and unions is the same: as companies consolidate and reconfigure real‑estate footprints, they must ensure transitional work receives the same safety discipline and investment that protects employees on active production lines.
Stellantis declined to comment beyond its cooperation with authorities and condolences. The UAW has called for a full accounting of safety practices at affected sites.
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