adminThe United Auto Workers union sent 6,800 Stellantis employees to the picket line Monday morning in a surprise, targeted strike at the company’s Ram truck facility.
The Sterling Heights Assembly Plant is Stellantis’ “largest plant and biggest moneymaker,” UAW said in a statement Monday. The plant, about a half-hour north of Detroit, in Sterling Heights, Michigan, produces the Ram 1500 pickup.
The union said the company, which makes vehicles under the Dodge, Ram, Jeep and Chrysler brands, has “the worst proposal on the table” in its negotiations on pay, converting temporary workers to full time and cost-of-living adjustments.
“Despite having the highest revenue, … the highest profit margins, and the most cash in reserve, Stellantis lags behind both Ford and General Motors in addressing the demands of their UAW workforce,” the UAW said.
The Ram pickup trucks are Stellantis’ best-selling vehicles in the US market. It sold 332,000 Ram pickups in the United States in the first nine months of this year. But it is not the only plant that builds the Ram 1500. They are also produced at a nonunion plant in Mexico, as well as another UAW-represented plant in Warren, Michigan. Stellantis does not disclose how many pickups come out of each plant, but Sterling Heights is the largest of the plants building the trucks.
This is the second “surprise” targeted strike in two weeks by the UAW. The first was at Ford on October 11, when the UAW went on strike at that automaker’s largest plant, the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville.
Stellantis formed in 2021 through the merger of Fiat Chrysler and European automaker PSA Group.
On Friday, Stellantis said, “Negotiations between Stellantis and the UAW continue to be productive, building on the momentum from the past several weeks. We have made progress on narrowing the gaps on significant issues.”
CNN has reached out to Stellantis for comment on this expanded strike.
Expanding strike
There are now more than 40,000 UAW members on strike as it enters its sixth week, with 14,600 on now on strike at Stellantis, joining the 16,600 on strike at Ford and 9,200 on strike at GM.
The strike started September 15 with one assembly plant at each company and 12,700 UAW members on strike, but the union’s strategy has been to increase pressure on the companies by adding new strike targets in subsequent weeks.
Fain told members that all three companies are now offering record contracts to the union, but that the union would remain on strike because it believes the companies could all agree to even bigger gains to members, given the strong profits all are reporting, to make up for the concessions the unions gave the companies when they were struggling in the past.
There are now two assembly plants on strike at both Stellantis and GM and three assembly plants at Ford, as well as networks of parts distribution networks at both GM and Stellantis.
But the union has stopped short of having all 145,000 members at the three companies all be on strike.
The Big Three automakers have laid off thousands of workers as a result. The first five weeks of the strike has had an economic impact of $9.3 billion, according to Anderson Economic Group, with the three automakers suffering losses of $4.2 million between them. The automakers’ suppliers have lost $2.8 billion between them in lost profits and wages, and the UAW members at the automakers who are on strike or have been laid off by the companies during the strike have lost nearly $500 million in wages, according to Anderson.
So far only GM has disclosed any of the losses from the strike. It said that it cost the company $200 million in the first two weeks alone. GM is due to report quarterly earnings tomorrow and Ford is scheduled to report results after the market close on Thursday. Stellantis, being based in Europe, does not report quarterly profits or losses, only full-year and six-month results. But it is due to report quarter sales and revenue on October 31.
Read the full article here
