UAW: Confronting Detroit Three Kept Plant Gates Open

The UAW’s tentative contracts with Detroit’s three automakers include not only wage increases but also billions of dollars in commitments for new investments, including the addition of an all-new electric van at Ford’s Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake, OH, and a new midsize pickup truck at the idle Stellantis assembly plant in Belvidere, IL.

The UAW is launching the ratification process this week at both Ford and Stellantis, and the new investments are critical to winning votes for approval.

According to the UAW, Ford plans to spend $8.1 billion on new products over the next four and half years not only on the van at Ohio Assembly but also on a new electric version of the Ford Escape at the company’s Louisville, KY, Assembly Plant. Ford is not saying much about the van, but Ohio Assembly currently builds the Ford Super Duty and F-650/F-750 and the new vehicle is likely to be a large delivery-style van.

Additionally, Ford will add a third crew at the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, MI, which was the epicenter of the union’s so-called stand-up strikes. Michigan Assembly (pictured, below) builds the Ford Bronco and new Ford Ranger.

Michigan assembly_plant-ford_ranger

The UAW also says a new but unspecified product will be added to the Flat Rock, MI, Assembly Plant where the Ford Mustang is now built. Ford assembly plants in Kansas City, MO; Chicago; and Dearborn, MI, also will get new investments under the spending commitments included in the tentative agreement.

On the other hand, Stellantis, the successor to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, was threatening to close more plants in the run-up to this year’s contract talks.

Rich Boyer, UAW vice president and head of the union’s Stellantis Dept., notes the automaker’s decision to shutter the Belvidere plant last winter was a major issue throughout the negotiations and a rallying cry for union members.

“Eight months ago, Stellantis idled Belvidere Assembly Plant, putting 1,200 of our members on the street,” Boyer says after the tentative agreement was reached over the weekend. “This company ripped the heart out of that community.”

Boyer, however, says the UAW rescued the Belvidere plant.

“We have won a new vehicle at Belvidere. It will be a midsize truck and will have two shifts,” he says. “In addition to the vehicle commitment, Stellantis will also be adding over a thousand jobs at a new battery plant in Belvidere.”

UAW negotiators also won commitments from Stellantis that will protect jobs at the Trenton, MI, Engine Plant (pictured, below) and the Toledo Machining Plant in Perrysburg, OH. Stellantis had both plants “on the chopping block,” Boyer says.

Stellantis Trenton Engine

“Both of these plants were told there was nothing left for them, that they would just go down to zero and eventually shut down,” according to Boyer.

“Through the power of our stand-up strike, we have won product commitments that will save all of the jobs at Trenton Engine and double the workforce at Toledo Machining by the end of this agreement,” he says.

“Altogether we’ve won almost $19 billion dollars in new investment in the United States.”

UAW President Shawn Fain adds: “We are going from defense to offense. We are going from the managed decline of the American working class to a new era of auto manufacturing.

“They told us for years that the electric-vehicle transition was a death sentence for good auto jobs in this country,” says Fain, noting Stellantis wanted to trim 5,000 jobs in the U.S. but predicts the company will add 5,000 over the term of the 54-month contract.

“Shawn Fain said he would bring change to the UAW, and he certainly has,” says Michelle Kaminski, associate professor at Michigan State University’s School of Human Resources & Labor Relations.

“He is using social media in a very effective way to reach the membership, build solidarity and keep members informed. We have not seen this kind of public disclosure of what offers are on the table before,” she says. “Fain’s Friday briefings help members understand what they are fighting for, and where things stand. This has been extremely successful in keeping those who are on the picket lines committed to the strike.”