One of America’s biggest carmakers, Stellantis, could face fresh strikes after the United Auto Workers (UAW) announced plans for members to vote on authorizing a walkout.
The UAW president, Shawn Fain, accused executives at the automotive giant of being “out of control” on Tuesday evening. “The company wants you to be scared,” he told his union’s members, “but we are 100% within our rights and within our power to take strike action if necessary.”
The UAW, one of the most powerful trade unions in the US, conducted a wave of strikes against top auto manufacturers last year. After 44 days of action at Stellantis, it announced a tentative agreement with the company.
Its deal with Stellantis, the Jeep maker, included significant wage increases, as well as a commitment to bringing back and creating additional jobs at Stellantis’s Belvidere plant in Illinois, which the company had shuttered earlier in the year, resulting in more than 1,300 layoffs. The contract also stipulated that Stellantis would add a battery plant in the complex and produce the Ram Dakota at the plant, creating thousands of additional jobs.
This week, however, the UAW filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, including charges filed by 28 UAW locals representing thousands of Stellantis workers, accusing the company of refusing to provide information to the union about the product commitments it made in the 2023 contract.
In a live stream, Fain announced that the UAW will be convening its Stellantis council in Detroit and holding strike authorization votes at one or more UAW locals.
“We’re here to save the company from themselves, and to save our communities from the war on the working class,” Fain said, pausing during his speech to drink from a coffee mug with “Boss’s tears” labeled on it. “The problem isn’t that Stellantis workers are making too much. The problem is that no amount of profit for Stellantis executives like [CEO] Carlos Tavares will ever be enough.”
Stellantis recently announced a decision to lay off workers at its Warren truck assembly plant in Michigan, potentially cutting as many as 2,500 jobs. The UAW has also alleged that Stellantis reneged on the deal to reopen and expand production at Belvidere, and accused the company of attempting to offshore production of the Dodge Durango, in violation of their agreement.
A Stellantis spokesperson said in an email: “Shawn Fain continues to allege that the company has violated the contract, but to date has provided no data or information to back up his claims. Instead, he continues to willfully damage the reputation of the company with his public attacks which is helpful to no one including his members. We would all be better served if these issues were addressed across the table with productive, respectful and forward-looking dialogue. A strike does not benefit anyone – our customers, our dealers, the community and, most importantly, our employees.”
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The company has previously denied violating the contract and claimed it has delayed reopening the Belvidere plant due to market conditions, but still plans on fulfilling the deal, beginning in 2027.
Fain criticized that explanation, citing backlash toward Stellantis from the company’s own shareholders and car dealers. “Either we allow an out-of-control CEO and his billionaire backers who have enjoyed years of record profits to close plant after plant and are continuing to destroy our country,” he said, “or we stand up, fight back and we rally the American working class to take on corporate greed.”
