The United Auto Workers (UAW) union and Chrysler-owner Stellantis announced a tentative agreement on a new labor contract.
It comes after more than 14,000 UAW members carried out a six-week-long strike at two Stellantis assembly plants in Michigan and Ohio and at several distribution centers across the nation.
"We look forward to welcoming our 43,000 employees back to work and resuming operations to serve our customers and execute our Dare Forward 2030 strategic plan to maintain Stellantis’ position at the forefront of innovation," Stellantis North America COO Mark Stewart said in a written statement Saturday, referencing the name of the company's business plan.
The Ford and Stellantis agreements still need to be ratified by all workers. Employees are expected to return to work in the meantime.
The two deals won assembly plant workers a record 25 percent increase in general wages over the next 4.5 years, with 11 percent coming once the deal is ratified. Contracts run through April 30, 2028.
Under the Stellantis deal, workers will get cost-of-living pay that would bring the raises to a compounded 33 percent, with top assembly plant workers making more than $42 per hour. At Stellantis, top-scale workers now make around $31 per hour.
The UAW said the deal saved jobs in Belvidere as well at an engine plant in Trenton, Michigan, and a machining factory in Toledo, Ohio. “We’ve done the impossible. We have moved mountains. We have reopened an assembly plant that was closed," Mr. Fain said.
UAW Expands Strike Against GM
Talks between the union and GM continue as the strike enters its seventh week. The UAW has expanded its strike against GM, with its members walking out Saturday night at a GM engine factory in Spring Hill, Tennessee—GM’s largest manufacturing facility in North America.Roughly 3,900 people work at the plant, although not all are part of the union. With this expansion, approximately 18,000 GM workers are now on strike, representing close to 40 percent of the entire UAW workforce at the automaker.
In a statement, GM said that two of its large pickup plants could be affected by the Spring Hill walkout and that it wanted to reach an agreement quickly.
“We are disappointed by the UAW’s action in light of the progress we have made,” GM also said. “We have continued to bargain in good faith with the UAW, and our goal remains to reach an agreement as quickly as possible.”
The UAW is already striking at GM's Arlington, Texas, assembly plant, which makes the Chevy Tahoe and Suburban and Cadillac Escalade. GM said earlier this week that this walkout was costing it $400 million a week.