By Muhammed Hashim 
Union plans to hold votes on strike action against beleaguered automaker which denies it has reneged on promises made to conclude 2024 disagreement
September 18, 2024 at 11:49
- America’s biggest auto union, the UAW, has signaled that it could call for another walkout at Stellantis.
- Union bosses claim the automaker has not kept product commitments it made to end last year’s strike action.
- The UAW will hold strike authorization votes to decide whether workers will down-tool at North American sites.
Stellantis is bracing itself for another devasting round of strike action after the United Auto Workers (UAW) union said it would hold votes to decide whether to stage another walkout.
Exactly a year ago the Stellantis workers forced production lines to grind to a halt in a bid to improve their pay and conditions. The automaker eventually relented, bringing the six-week strike to a close by increasing worker pay and making promises about future products that could safeguard UAW jobs. The UAW also conducted strikes at Ford and GM plants, proving that it was still a force to be reckoned with.
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But now the union claims Stellantis has failed to come good on the product commitments it made last year. Complaints include delays in reopening the Belvidere Assembly plant in Illinois, which remains idle, and the automaker’s alleged plan to move Dodge Durango production out of the US to Canada.
Rumors say the Durango will be indirectly replaced in 2027 by a new, slightly smaller SUV, possibly called Stealth and built at the Windsor plant in Ontario, Canada, though Stellantis hasn’t confirmed such a move, or details about the SUV.
News that the UAW would hold strike authorization votes came only a day after the union filed federal labor charges against Stellantis with the National Labor Relations Board. The UAW alleges that the automaker has failed to provide information about its plans going forward.
“[The UAW] is done waiting around for the company to do the right thing,” said union boss Shawn Fain during a speech posted to the organization’s YouTube channel. “We intend to fight like hell to make this company keep their promise.”
But Stellantis denies it has failed to keep promises it made last fall. “The commitments we made during 2024 negotiations span the life of the 4-year, 7-1/2 month agreement, so it is not surprising that they haven’t been fully realized in the first year,” the company said in a statement to Reuters.
The walkout threat comes at a bad time for Stellantis, which is dealing with a weak car market, a public that is far less interested in EVs than it predicted, and a recent set of financial results showing its profits dropped by 48 percent in the first half of 2024.