“We’ve achieved what just weeks ago we were told was impossible,” announced United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain today after his team penned a tentative agreement with Stellantis that promises to start building a midsize truck at the Belvidere Assembly Plant, an Illinois facility idled earlier this year after building Chrysler products for over half a century. Here’s what we know about the job and wages increases associated with the new tentative agreement between the union and the maker of Jeep, Dodge, Ram, and Chrysler.
As is common with union negotiations in Detroit, a deal with one automaker is often quickly followed by a deal from the remaining two. So it’s no surprise that today, on day 44 of the strike — just a few days after the UAW announced a tentative agreement with Ford — UAW Shawn Fain is back in front of the camera announcing a tentative agreement, this time with Stellantis. And, according to him, it’s a huge win.
“We truly are saving the American dream,” Fain says in the video above before handing things over to Vice President Rich Boyer, who announces good news for Belvidere Assembly Plant (where Stellantis built the Jeep Cherokee KL) workers and their families: “Eight months ago, Stellantis idled Belvidere Assembly Plant, putting 1,200 of our members on the street,” he says. “From the day I heard they were coming after Belvidere, I swore one thing: We weren’t going to let them kill another working class community.” So then comes the big announcement:
“UAW family, it is… my great honor to announce that we have saved Belvidere. Again, we have saved Belvedere… We have won a new vehicle at Belvidere…it will be a midsize truck, and we will have two shifts. In addition to the vehicle commitment, Stellantis will also be adding over 1,000 jobs at a new battery plant in Belvidere.
We got everyone who lost their job at Belvidere put back on temporary layoff, meaning they’ll get sub-pay and healthcare until their job’s back in Belvidere. Under our contract, members from Belvidere who have been scattered across this country will have the right to return back to Belvidere.
“We’ve done the impossible. We have moved mountains,” jumps in Fain. “We have reopened an assembly plant the company closed.” On top of this, two plants that Stellantis had apparently told the UAW would close, are not just sticking around, but one is adding jobs. From Boyer:
“We have won product commitments that will save all these jobs at Trenton Engine and double the workforce at Toledo machining…altogether we have won over 19 Billion in new investment in the United States.”
Fain assures UAW members that these job additions aren’t just temporary; the UAW will strike if Stellantis goes back on these promises. From Fain:
“We not only won the right to strike over plant closure, we won the right to strike over product and investment. That means if the company goes back on their word over any of these plans, we can strike the hell out of them.”
He goes on:
“They told us for years that the electric vehicle transission was a death sentenace for good auto jobs in this country. We stood up and said ‘No!’ With this agreement, we’re proving them all wrong…we’re adding 5,000 jobs in powertrain alone.”
As for pay increases, the UAW breaks it down in its press release, writing:
The agreement grants 25% in base wage increases through April 2028, and will cumulatively raise the top wage by 33% compounded with estimated COLA to over $42 an hour. The starting wage will increase by 67% compounded with estimated COLA, to over $30 an hour. The lowest-paid workers at Stellantis, temporary workers, will see a raise of more than 165% over the life of the agreement. Some workers at Mopar will receive an immediate 76% increase upon ratification.
Boyer mentions an immediate pay increase for all Stellantis workers after the contract has been ratified:
“At ratification, Stellantis workers will receive an immediately 11 percent wage increase; that’s almost equal to all the wage increases since 2007 combined.”
UAW leadership is clearly happy with this tentative agreement, putting it into context in the union’s press release:
Like the Ford agreement, the Stellantis deal includes gains valued at more than four times the gains from the union’s 2019 contract. It provides more in base wage increases than Stellantis workers have received in the past 22 years.
As for other wins, the UAW breaks down changes to the retirement setup and to the tier-system:
The agreement reinstates major benefits lost during the Great Recession, including Cost-of-Living Allowances and a three-year Wage Progression, as well as killing divisive wage tiers in the union. It improves retirement for current retirees, those workers with pensions, and those who have 401(k) plans.
Plus, Fain proudly mentions in the video a change to a system that keeps temporary workers onboard for a long time without making them full-time. From Fain:
“The system of permatemps, where this company keeps thousands and thousands of our members in permanent lower class status, that system has now ended. Immediately upon ratification, thousands of temps will be converted. No one will remain a temp for more than nine months after ratification.”
Boyer announces that all Stellantis UAW members will head back to work so that production of Jeep Wranglers and Gladiators in Toledo, Ohio — and Ram 1500s in Sterling Heights, Michigan — can resume. In addition, workers at the Mopar Parts Depot will also resume work.
“The days of low-wage, unstable jobs at the big three are coming to an end,” Fain says towards the end of the video above. “The days of the Big Three walking away from the American working class, destroying our communities, are coming to an end. We’ve seen 65 plant closures in the past 20 years; think of the lives disrupted and destroyed. Think of the communities that that’s affected…With the right to strike over plant closures and the right to strike over product, we are saying ‘Not One More.'”
From here, the UAW National Stellantis Council will meet in Detroit on Thursday, November 2. If they agree to send the deal to all members, a Facebook Live session for all members will happen that night to allow members to review the agreement. Then the UAW will hold regional meetings with local leadership, and after that those leaders will head back to their local offices to help all members understand the deal fully. Then there will be a ratification vote.
As for what Stellantis has to say, here’s a quote from the company’s North America COO Mark Stewert:
Today, as we announce that we have reached a tentative agreement with the UAW on a new labor contract, I would like to thank all the negotiating teams who have worked tirelessly for many weeks to get to this point. We look forward to welcoming our 43,000 employees back to work and resuming operations to serve our customers and execute our Dare Forward 2030 strategic plan to maintain Stellantis’ position at the forefront of innovation.
This agreement is now subject to ratification by Stellantis’ UAW-represented employees and, out of respect for the process, we will decline further comment to allow the UAW to share the details with its members.
I have no idea how this will affect the comptetitiveness of the US automakers versus the non-union shops, but between this and the Hollywood writers getting massive concessions from the studios it is rather promising for the workers in this country.
Great news, I’m elated for them! I’m looking forward to an effective pay CUT this year (again), but I’m glad there are some blue-collar workers in the US that might actually be able to have a good life now.
The dude is killing it. Great for him and the UAW
Are those quotes cut and pasted from auto-generated captions? They are full of weird phonetic spelling errors:
By my calculation, UAW assembled vehicles are currently about 36% of US sales. This number will continue to drop, based on losing market share to transplants and ev startups.
lol bootlickers line up
did the 32 hr work week go through?
Nope, and it was never a serious part of the offer
Hell yeah this is awesome news.
Don’t forget, a rising tide floats all boats.
Sending their jobs outta country like what happened to the plants in my town, unskilled workers making too much money.
Are you talking about the ceo, grandpa ?
Mark my words this is the exact scenario that created the malaise Era of cars in the 70s, except for 1 thing. We have unions demand for financial demands that will lower car profits. We have a government support unsustainable union demands and requiring unattainable goals of manufacturing. Government spending is causing inflation unlike anything since Jimmy Carter. So yeah this will cause a collapse. The difference is there is a huge supplier of better built, better priced, and better looking. I am sure the Big 3 and the UAW are thinking government bailout, they know this shit storm isn’t financially tenable, but this time unlike the 70s consumers have a worldwide choice of better quality vehicles. And the US doesn’t need the big 3 to keep auto manufacturing in the US. It might destroy the Democrat Party but it is not too big too fail.
Congrats on standing up for a billion dollar corporation that only cares about profits and has no care for you.
I really doubt the UAW gives a shit about me ad a person who isn’t in their union. Said union that has ripped off their members for decades.
Unions are the reason you didn’t have to work in a coal mine when you were 8 years old and the reason these workers still have their jobs.
That dude has a hard time understanding things…as you can see
Oh really? So it wasn’t all those federal laws on safety, emissions, fuel economy, and insurability that were signed by RICHARD MILHOUSE NIXON, who was a REPUBLICAN?
I guess someone who thinks that “worldwide vehicles” were not available to Americans in the ’70s never saw those Toyota and VW dealers all over the place.
You might want to “do your own research”.
We’ve been in a malaise era since like 2016. The OEM drives the malaise era by ridiculous profit requirements; cheap, poorly built, derivative designs, with questionable reliability due to the aforementioned issues.
Oops. Double posted.
Woo-hoo we can now expect EVs to average $80,000 and ICE to average $55,000.
Woo-hoo our neighbors and community members and fellow human beings don’t have to go broke just so we can buy cheaper things.
Yes they were only making $80,000 a year. Poor poor poor employees can’t build quality
I don’t know what your problem is, but I’m guessing it’s hard to pronounce.
That’s funny.
The neighbors and community members will go broke paying $20,000 more for cars needing repairs because new shit car malaise era.
I don’t think you understand what percentage payroll plays in auto production. Per car there are actually surprisingly few employee hours spent compared to the distant past.
your facts will just confuse him
let him lick boots, it’s what he does
It must be nice thinking unions help the non-union workers.
Just curious, did you post something similar when the big 3 made over $5 billion in stock buybacks this past year?
No considering over $3 billion was reinvested in modernized and electric plants. FEIN brags about getting Stellantis required to reinvested $2:billion but last year they did $1 billion more. They achieved a billion.less.
lol surejan.gif
I forgot how affordable they all were before last week
good call, dunce
Labor costs is only about %5 of vehicle cost, so prices like that will be the result of continued corporate greed, not people making a living wage.
Fantastic news! New product allocation to an idled plant guarantees some stability!
I thought I read most employees were working at other plants?
That is outstanding news! I’m especially happy to see that Belvidere is going to reopen. I drive by there a 3-6 times a year, and it’s been sad to see it shut down.
Although interestingly there has never not been some vehicles in the parking lot. I presume they kept some security and building maintenance people on staff to keep the building alive since the plant was officially idled and not fully shut down.
Yeah, there’s a lot of ongoing maintenance that has to happen to keep a plant in condition to reopen relatively easily. The paint shop would likely have to have everything still circulating
Hopefully this spurs other automakers to unionize. Americans don’t *have* to be poor and fight over scraps. Unions improve the lives of workers and communities
Americans don’t, but politicians will do their best to create social issues to get Americans distracted.
Most likely the Big 3 fail and non union manufacturers sales soar because better quality vehicles are over $10,000 cheaper, for now, and everyone who can’t afford the new $80,000 Pinto buys the $35,000 Civic until no more Big 3.
Hopefully those manufacturers can unionize too so their workers can get a better deal
Sorry the non union members already a better deal
We know how well built Teslas are. Or Kia/Hyundai.
It’s not a union vs non union issue, it’s a manufacturing quality issue. You get crap cars with or without union involvement.
If you were paid barely above McDonald’s wages with no path to full employment, would you give a fig whether that bolt was torqued properly? I wouldn’t.
But Toyota built was better than union. Ford has failed launch on everything. Now if quality is equal.but save $25,000
Ok grandpa
Toyota built many fine automobiles with union labor at the Nummi plant. Quality comes from stopping the line to make repairs in place and having solid inspection standards. Paying your workers shit wages doesn’t somehow make them more effective at their jobs
so much stupid concentrated into one post, but I’m here for your dunce-ness
Why would any employee of a transplant or ev startup want to join an organization where the past two major domos have done jail time for bribery over screwing the membership to line their own pockets?
Because that union got new leadership that just got its members one hell of a good deal. If I were a Toyota or Tesla worker right now, I’d be considering pushing for a union
Sammy’s another one of them big-time bootlickers, you get used to it
You always know when posters resort to name calling their arguments have failed the test of logic.
Nope, cute idea, but completely wrong. Dunces have to get called out for being dunces.
Fain dominated this entire cycle, and he’s definitely not the same as the old morons that were uber-corrupt. And you know that, which is why you’re a corporate bootlicker. I win, you lose, and I’m better-looking, too.
It’s truly amazing how these dunces apparently haven’t paid any attention to how leadership runs in the UAW now. How they get elected now. It’s a complete 180 from anything they’ve had for decades. Just gotta get their tired talking points in.
this is true. However, to their credit…it was pretty awful, and pretty corrupt for a very long time.
Well, this is amazing. Those figures are mind-boggling in the workers’ perspective, but rest assured: if Stellantis agreed to them, they are definitely, 100% attainalbe without threatning profits (anyone who’s currently worried that Stellantis just agreed to a deal that may cause operational losses needs a reality check).
Not gonna lie, I’m curious about what the anti-union narrative will be. Will there be talk of how this was basically a ransom of a poor, defenseless corporation by greedy woking class families? Are they going to try and argue that it’s somehow worse that this money will end in the pockets of workers rather than the shareholders? Really curious about how this will get spinned.
So far the anti union crowd just lazily says it’ll cause job losses….as if the UAW didn’t negotiate plant closure strikes into it. People aren’t gonna turn away from their propaganda
Well, they do seem awfully quiet this time around. Almost like any argument they could’ve had just imploded with Stellantis caving in to the worker’s demands.
Their one brain cell is careening and ricocheting endlessly in their skulls trying to find something to say
Yeah as if Toyota wasn’t already a better car now at $20,000 less I am sure people will look for the union label. Because the union workers make worse cars. That is why Ford can’t launch a car without a couple recalls.
Toyota made fine automobiles out of the NUMMI plant for years. It’s company culture, not unions
Mercedes’s peak cars (1965-1990 or so) were made in union plants.
Yes premium cars built 50nyrs ago may have been better.
You’re moving the goal posts. That was the malaise era and Detroit was producing “premium cars” then too, at least nominally.
lol here’s major bootlicker 1 on cue
I know you can’t possibly understand this and I’m close to thinking you’re just a troll given your username but you do know that assembly workers don’t engineer these vehicles and buy the parts that go onto them, right? They put them together according to specifications that they did not engineer. You want to trash some folks, then you should be trashing engineering but most likely, you need to be trashing MBA finance folks who are only interested in whatever is the cheapest option. They are sourcing those junk parts. At least Toyota will listen to their assembly workers when they find a defect in design.
It’s going to be how this will push manufacturing out of America, since corporations will care more about the shareholders than a stronger America.
Well yeah. If my retirement is in cars I would prefer a increase in my portfolio than supporting poorly made overpriced cars. This does not support America it supports a very corrupt UAW.
still failing at arguing 101, and 102, and…
Is your retirement in cars?
I am investing in short sales of big 3.
Can someone turn grandpa off ?
That’s so awesome that you are actively pushing for the death of American companies and American workers’ jobs. After all, how dare the workers demand pay increases that are even REMOTELY commensurate with an increase in executive pay and shareholder profits?!
They’ll be back in line for another federal bailout from President Harris in 2027. There’s no way GM, F, and St would have signed up for this otherwise.
and here we see what we really have: we have some sort of weird MAGA person here, adding the super-weird angle that Biden’s apparently dead (but the Dems win the election, so….?) now, a corporate bailout is needed specifically due to this deal. Your mental illness is showing again.
The usual playbook: higher costs! We’ll lose market share to manufacturers! We’ll lose jobs! Look how awesome Tesla is with no unions!
Etc.
When unions were better. Educated employees fine bit they suck. Toyota is better built now big 3 just crap
He sound like a scratched vinyl
You can find out right now by reading Mr. Sarcastic’s comments. Yeesh…
oh, the arguments are out on this thread, it’s amazing how some people will contort themselves to be subjugated
Yeah, they started to pop up in the meantime. Kinda sad to watch such complete disregard for the working class as a whole. Love the “won’t you think of the people whose retirements are tied to car industry stocks”… like, dude, maybe the issue is that people’s retirements are tied to ANY stocks instead of kept in any kind of public pension fund.
I’m sure any public pension fund would be managed as well as Social Security and Medicare!
This is generally not a terrible point…except some are managed very well. Like mine. So, not a completely useless point? We’re making real progress today, Gene
I mean… It’s not like there isn’t a long history of mismanagement of private pension funds in the USA. I do agree the USA needs to get their shit together re: Social Security and Medicare. Public pension funds have worked well enough here in Europe (although with the shift in demographics there is some concern for future sustainability, but that is being addressed with some much needed reforms in many countries; the US could benefit from some reforms too).
The anti-union crowd has no rational argument. Almost every auto worker in Japan is a member of JAW, their union. 700,000 members. Toyota, Mazda, etc produces union made cars that certainly compete. In Germany, autoworkers are generally union workers — in fact the union has seats on the board of VW and Daimler. Unions can be run by criminals just like corporations can, but unions are indeed responsible for nearly every worker protection that we all enjoy. The anti-union sentiment tends to run in families. I heard all the “right to work” bullshit from relatives growing up. Now they are old, they have no pension, rely on Medicare and Medicaid, and they struggle. It’s propaganda and it is extremely effective.
In the USA I believe the issue for any manufacturer is constant pressure from stockholders to make their quarter whatever it takes, leading to short term strategies. The executives know they’ll be gone when the chickens come home to roost from reducing R&D, off-shoring components and entire vehicles and then being surprised when a pandemic, war, or other black swan event renders their business impotent.
I’m happy for the union win and I hope: a) the people running the union finances aren’t crooks and b) management thinks long term and invests in truly competitive products.
From an outsider’s perspective it’s extremely sad to watch so many American workers actively supporting narratives that are meant to hold them back. The whole thing about how unions are corrupt… well, newsflash, usually the same people corrupting them are the ones spreading anti-union propaganda. And the reason these unions may not have the workers’ best interests in mind is because they’re not actually representing workers as much as they’re made into puppets of corporations. The way to fight this isn’t to do away with unions, it’s to organise and win them back for workers.
“No one will remain a temp for more than nine months” is great! That is a big win for the people stuck hoping to move into proper permanent roles.
Tech industry has used perma-temps for a long time, but after the Microsoft “de facto employee” lawsuit in the 90s they simply laid off every temp at 12 or 18 months and then hired them back after 6 months.
I’m surprised the auto industry didn’t follow a similar pattern.
I work in semiconductors, and the way they avoid permatemps is by using contracting companies. They can do layoffs by telling another company they need fewer workers and I think that avoids certain reporting requirements.
I’m glad automakers haven’t done either of these things.
This alone is a reason for unions.
This might have been the biggest part of it from my perspective. The way US companies manipulate workers’ status is infuriating. Oh, Starbucks will pay for full time baristas’ college! Starbucks has 7 full time baristas in the entire US!
Right on!
Now get off the shitter GM and face the music. Stuff happens.
You can’t earn this much damn cash and then cry poor. Grow a pair Mary.
Thanks DT. Great work throughout this deal and totally appreciate getting the facts from you vs the other types of media available.
I award you this complimentary hood ornament in appreciation of your efforts.
How much do you wanna bet that the “midsized truck” they’ll be building will be a unibody short bed pickup that’s the size of a full sized truck from the 90s?
So…like everyone else’s current mid size truck then…
The Tacoma, Ranger, Frontier, and Gladiator are all unibody?
No…I was referring to the dimensions.
Could be but I’ve seen more product planning around the return of the Dakota to compete with the Ranger, Tacoma and Colorado