Posts tagged Stellantis
UAW Volkswagen Workers Negotiating For Strong First Contract
October 3, 2024 // Negotiations are underway between the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Volkswagen in Tennessee as the two sides work to hammer out the very first contract between VW union members and the automaker. Earlier this year, 4,300 workers at the VW's Chattanooga plant voted almost 3-to-1 to join the UAW, becoming the first Southern autoworkers outside the Big Three to unionize. The all-electric VW ID.4 is one model built at the plant.
Commentary: The UAW Puts Academics Ahead of Autoworkers
September 29, 2024 // Nor are autoworkers heading to the picket line for student-loan forgiveness. But the UAW thinks that topic matters, once again at the insistence of graduate students who have never been to a factory. Last year, after the Supreme Court struck down the Biden-Harris administration’s first scheme to “cancel” student debt, UAW leaders oddly called it an “anti-worker decision.” That’s news to workers at the Rawsonville plant, many of whom have already repaid thousands of dollars in college tuition and have no desire to work overtime to pay off the student loans of those who chose to go to college and willingly took on debt.
Opinion: The Dangers of Union Expansion in Missouri
September 25, 2024 // Consider the fact also that the UAW has spent lavishly on travel, hotels, and executive salaries over the past several years. For example, from 2013 to 2018, the UAW spent $43 million on hotels and resorts and $4 million on restaurants and bars. Two past UAW Presidents have been convicted of felonies involving financial mismanagement. Meanwhile, current President Shawn Fain is under investigation by a federal court-appointed watchdog. Fain has been accused by two union officials of retaliating against them when they refused to take actions that would have benefited Fain’s fiancé and her sister.
Boeing union members are angry they lost their pension plan. They’re not likely to get it back
September 24, 2024 // But the fact is that the traditional pension plans, once a staple of the retirement of many workers, have become exceedingly rare in the modern American workplace. And once a company drops traditional pensions plans to shift employees to a 401(k) type of retirement account, they are almost always gone for good. While other unions have also sought to have lost pension plans restored, as the United Auto Workers union did during its successful strike at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis last fall, no American union has ever succeeded in bringing them back. Even though the auto strike produced a deal with record pay raises and other gains for the UAW, it did not restore pension plans to workers hired since 2007.
Commentary: Labor strikes add to Harris union headache after Teamsters snub
September 23, 2024 // The announcement laid bare what could be a major liability for Harris ahead of the election. She is supported by most labor leaders, but rank-and-file members could deny her the presidency if they show up instead for Trump. But Harris also has a second emerging labor headache: Several unions are considering strikes, threatening to upend supply chains weeks out from the November election. Last Friday, more than 30,000 Boeing workers walked off the job, and dockworkers at ports along the Gulf and East coasts are threatening their own strike next month. United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain similarly announced on Tuesday his organization will hold strike authorization votes against auto manufacturer Stellantis.
A year after the strike is the UAW still winning?
September 19, 2024 // HSU: Yeah. And Ailsa, you know, people who closely follow the auto industry have told me, you know, it's a very cyclical industry. We saw car sales go through the roof during the pandemic, when people - when Americans were flush with cash. That was never going to last forever. And now the automakers are also in the middle of this really messy and costly transition to EVs. The UAW is really fighting for its place in that transition. It did make some progress in the last contract negotiations - for example, getting GM battery workers under the National Labor Agreement. BISAHA: Yeah. And along those lines, earlier this month, we had a thousand battery workers at a GM joint venture battery plant in Tennessee. They joined the UAW, too. HSU: Yeah. That was a big win for the UAW. But, you know, as for Stellantis, this week, the union filed federal labor charges against the company, really in an attempt to get Stellantis to follow through on its investment promises, including reopening that plant in Belvidere. You know, this is just not going to be an easy fight, and it's one that I expect will probably end up in court.
UAW President Shawn Fain announces strike authorization votes against Stellantis
September 19, 2024 // While Stellantis had not commented Tuesday night on the UAW's plan to hold strike authorization votes, Fain vowed to keep fighting and force the company to honor its commitments. "Last year in our strike, we went on offense and we won," Fain said. "Stellantis wants everyone to believe they simply can't afford to keep their commitments to American autoworkers. But let's be clear, Stellantis is one of the most profitable auto companies in the world."
Union autoworkers won big after striking. A year later, some face an uncertain future
September 15, 2024 // Now, workers are wondering how committed the trans-Atlantic automaker is to remain in the U.S. at all. For years, Cooper says, old-timers at his plant in Toledo have warned that if wages rose too much, the company would move jobs to Mexico. It's a threat he's always shrugged off, given how profitable the Jeep plant has been for Stellantis.
Half a century later, ILA returns to strike mode
September 13, 2024 // The ILA is one of the least aggressive unions when it comes to coastwide strikes, especially relative to its militant West Coast counterpart: the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which orchestrated stoppages and slowdowns just last year to attain its desired contract. In many respects, then, the ILA is riding the wave of labor’s recent successes that were achieved through hard-line tactics. In August 2023, the Teamsters celebrated the ratification of a new agreement with UPS. A few months later, the United Auto Workers secured large pay raises and other benefits for its members after a 46-day strike against Ford, Stellantis and General Motors.
UAW’s rift with Stellantis raises fear that some US auto jobs could vanish
September 12, 2024 // U.S. autoworkers warn that a dispute between their union and Stellantis over delays in reopening a shuttered factory in Belvidere, Illinois, is much bigger than that one plant.