Stellantis and the UAW are embroiled in a heated fight that is escalating quickly. The two sides have been sparring for months after Stellantis announced plans to delay the reopening of the Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois over “market conditions.” The UAW contends that the move is a ploy to kick the can past their contract’s expiration date and never open the plant. Stellantis insists that this is a delay, not a cancellation.
Last Thursday, UAW members at the automaker’s Los Angeles Parts Distribution Center voted to request strike authorization if the company and union can’t come to terms. While several UAW locals have filed grievances against the company since August, L.A. is the first to take it to the next level. The union says Stellantis has violated product and investment commitments ad threatened more strike authorization votes.
In a statement, UAW President Shawn Fain said, “Stellantis made a contractual promise to invest in America and we are not going to let them weasel out of it.”
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Last year, the union won $19 billion in investment commitments and the ability to strike if the company fails to keep those promises. According to the UAW, Stellantis has thus far put forward investment plans equal to only about 2% of the $19 billion, and is now publicly backtracking on plans in Belvidere, and to build the Dodge Durango in Detroit.
Last week, Stellantis started firing back. After filing an initial lawsuit against the UAW and Local 230 in Los Angeles, Stellantis filed eight additional lawsuits against the UAW and 23 local unions. The lawsuits prompted a meeting between the two sides on Saturday, during which the UAW proposed, according to Stellantis, reinstituting a concept called the jobs bank, a contributing factor to the automaker’s bankruptcy in 2009.
The jobs bank prohibited automakers from laying off employees. By the 2000s, Chrysler had more than 2,000 employees in the jobs bank. These were employees on the active payroll, but were not allowed to perform any production work.
Stellantis says the UAW is proposing a reinstatement of the jobs bank not only for employees in Belvidere, but for some 900 employees who transferred from Belvidere to other locations.
Stellantis rejected the UAW’s latest proposal because it would revert to prebankruptcy terms and conditions that would jeopardize the company’s future.
Stellantis admitted that the situation in Belvidere remains “extremely unsettling” for employees, but noted that the employees were placed on temporary layoffs, still earning 74% of pay and full healthcare benefits.
Stellantis maintains its position that any call for a strike by the UAW would be illegal, and if necessary, the company will see the litigation through and hold the UAW responsible for lost revenue, which the automaker says could amount to tens of millions a day in lost production.
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