Jeep maker Stellantis has reached a tentative contract agreement with the United Auto Workers union that follows a template laid out by Ford earlier this week, two people briefed on the negotiations said Saturday.
The agreement still needs to be approved by members, leaving GM alone without a contract with the union. The agreement could end a six-week strike by more than 14,000 workers at Stellantis assembly plants in Michigan and Ohio and parts warehouses across the country.
Like workers at Ford, strikers at Stellantis are expected to take down picket lines and begin returning to work ahead of a vote by 43,000 union members in the coming days.
Most of the key points of the Ford deal will carry over to Stellantis, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the negotiations.
The Ford agreement includes a general wage increase of 25% for senior assembly plant workers over the next 4.5 years, with an 11% wage increase once the deal is approved. Workers will also receive a living wage, which will bring a pay increase of more than 30%, with senior workers at the assembly plant earning more than $40 an hour. At Stellantis, top employees now make about $31 an hour.
Like Ford’s contract, Stellantis’ deal runs until April 30, 2028.
The deal is also expected to include news about a now-idled plant in Belvedere, Illinois, that the company had planned to close.
Rep. Bill Foster, the Democratic representative in Congress who represents Belvedere, said he has received indications that the plant will produce electric vehicles and will be expanded to include a new battery factory.Strantis indefinitely close factory In the spring, 1,350 employees who worked there were laid off.
Foster said he has been working with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office and other state and local officials to reopen the facility. State officials are expected to offer an incentive package to the company as part of the deal.
A massive Stellantis Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio, has been on strike since September, and local union president Bruce Baumhower said he expected workers to vote to approve the deal because the pay increase would be more than 30% and would be significant immediately. salary increase. .
“Eleven percent is correct,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, this is a historic agreement.”
Some union members have been complaining about Fain’s promise of a 40 percent raise to match what he said was being given to company executives, but Baumhower said that was UAW President Shawn Fain’s opening bid.
“Anyone who knows anything about negotiation, you always start from a much higher level than you think reality is,” he said.
Jermaine Antwine and other Stellantis workers picketed outside the automaker’s Sterling Heights, Miss., site on Saturday after hearing news of the tentative agreement. Feel very excited.
“Any time there’s a tentative agreement, it’s a good thing,” said Antwine, 48, of Pontiac, Miss. “This shows that both parties have reached agreement within the initial range of numbers.”
“Ultimately, the numbers they agreed on were exactly what the UAW wanted,” said Antwine, who has worked for the automaker for 24 years and is the leader of the materials team at the Sterling Heights plant.
Negotiations with General Motors Co. toward a similar deal were underway Saturday. More than 14,000 workers at GM plants in Texas, Michigan and Missouri remain on strike.
On September 15, the union began targeted strikes against the three automakers after their contracts expired.
The union and Stellantis engaged in intense negotiations on Thursday, a day after the Ford deal was announced, and finalized the agreement on Saturday.
UAW workers began a targeted strike at one of the companies’ assembly plants. On September 22, the strike expanded to include 38 GM and Stellantis parts warehouses. Ford and GM assembly plants added more a week later, and then the union dealt a blow to Ford by demolishing its Kentucky truck plant in Louisville, the company’s largest and most profitable plant.
At its peak, about 46,000 workers were on strike at the three companies, about one-third of Detroit Three’s 146,000 union members. Automakers are laying off thousands more jobs amid shortages of parts for manufacturing systems.
Under the Ford agreement, pensioned workers will also receive a small increase when they retire, while workers employed by 401(k) plans after 2007 will receive a larger increase. For the first time, unions will have the right to strike over the company’s plans to close factories. Temporary workers will also receive significant pay increases, and Ford has agreed to shorten the time it takes for new hires to reach top pay levels to three years.
Other union leaders who have adopted more aggressive negotiating tactics in recent months have also secured pay increases and other benefits for their members. Last month, the union representing Hollywood screenwriters called off a nearly five-month strike after scoring some victories over pay, job deadlines and other areas. This summer, the Teamsters union threatened a nationwide strike against delivery companies and later fought for new pay raises and benefits for unionized UPS workers.
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Hadrow contributed to this report from Jersey City, New Jersey. AP staff writer Corey Williams contributed from Sterling Heights, Michigan.
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