As Stellantis prepares to lay off thousands of plant workers as they have already paid off many non-union engineers and support staff, the United Auto Workers union (UAW) filed federal charges with the National Labor Relations Board to protest the company’s failure to honor its 2023 contract commitments.
Stellantis has already notified the union and public that it feels any promises of new product at Belvidere and Jefferson Avenue for 2027 were conditional on the market, rather than being binding. The contract could be interpreted either way.
Illustration: Stellantis signs in front of UAW imagery (the Jefferson North sign predates Stellantis).
The Dodge Durango was to move to the STLA Large architecture but stay within Jefferson North. The existing Durango was to be made throughout this year and next year, switching from the Hemi V8 to Hurricane six-cylinder engines when supplies of the Hemi ran out.
The UAW pointed out in a recent press release that Stellantis made high profits in the last quarter, and claimed the union had won, in the contract, the right to strike over changes to assembly plants.
The company’s CFO has stated that their goal was to make 80% of their product in “low-cost countries.” This has largely been interpreted as meaning supplied parts, rather than finished vehicles. Likewise, Stellantis’ current chief executive, Carlos Tavares, has repeatedly talked about the “need” to move work to lower-cost countries. This need appears to be unique to Stellantis, as General Motors, for example, has been adding battery-electric products, based on a battery system with replaceable modules, without massive layoffs, pressuring suppliers, shutting down factories, canceling future product, or moving engineering out of the United States.
David Zatz started what was to become the world’s biggest Mopar site (Allpar) in 1994. After a chemo-induced 2007-2010 break, during which he wrote car books covering Vipers, minivans, and Jeeps, he returned with Patrick Rall to create StellPower.com for daily news, and to set up MoTales for mo’ tales (Chrysler history and “permanent” car and truck pages). He most recently wrote Century of Chrysler, a 100-year retrospective on the marque.
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