Posts tagged Stellantis

    Record UAW Contracts = Record UAW Layoffs

    June 10, 2024 // Mapped out, the numbers are staggering. Thousands of employees missed paychecks or were forced to find new jobs across five states as automakers cut shifts and pared back production. A 25 percent pay raise sounds good in theory, but if Ford cuts a third of its 150 Lighting shifts at the Rouge to cover that expense, then the auto workers affected may be worse off than they were before the new contract. Although no automaker has escaped unscathed, the blow has fallen hardest on UAW members at Stellantis. Since the UAW and Stellantis came to the new contract agreement, over 1,300 UAW members at the company have permanently lost their jobs, alongside thousands more temporarily laid off as the company tries to control rising labor costs.

    UAW negotiates to increase number of GM workers eligible for buyout program

    May 24, 2024 // Booth added the union still has not negotiated "immediate eligibility" for all 545 skilled trades workers wanting to take the offer. Only 142 were immediately eligible in this first phase, Booth said. "We’re still fighting to win an expansion on that number. At GM, we have a shortage of skilled trades workers, a problem which will require creative solutions on the company’s part, and an expansion of their apprenticeship programs," he said. "We’re going to continue to fight for our skilled trades members who want to retire. And to be clear, every single member who is eligible to retire will have the opportunity to receive the $50,000 SAP during the life of this contract, skilled trades and production."

    Mercedes-Benz Workers in Alabama Facing Unionization Pressure

    May 13, 2024 // Just as foreign countries shouldn’t interfere in U.S. presidential elections, foreign actors shouldn’t interfere in American union elections. Foreign unions don’t have American workers’ best interests at heart. If Mercedes wants to operate in America, it should follow American law and not cave to IG Metall.

    No, Unions Aren’t Having a Resurgence—and That’s Good for Workers

    May 9, 2024 // Introducing more competition to the private sector union business model could help. For that, my colleague Liya Palagashvili suggests ending the exclusive-representation clause that "provides government-granted monopoly status to a union supported by 51 percent of an employer's workers, giving it the sole authority to negotiate. This means that if some workers want a different union—for example a newer one that might raise the bar in terms of what it can offer—they are out of luck." Today, these workers aren't allowed to engage in any negotiations with their employers, and they still have to pay the original union's fees.

    UAW says health, safety concerns prompt strike authorization vote at Stellantis plant

    May 3, 2024 // Those plants build the Dodge Durango, Chrysler Pacifica and Ram light and heavy duty trucks as well as Jeep Gladiator, Grand Cherokee, Wrangler, Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, according to the company. The union, which said the vote would cover about 1,100 members, listed a range of concerns that it said the company has failed to address, involving ventilation fans, flooding, personal protective equipment, restrooms, oil leaks, sanitation, and basement lighting and flooring.

    Exclusive: GOP Senators Seek to Reinstate Secret Ballots for Unionization as Volkswagen Workers Vote on Joining UAW

    April 19, 2024 // Blackburn told Breitbart News that the legislation is more important than ever, accusing “the Biden administration is teaming up with big unions to intimidate and undermine workers that are opposed to their far-left labor policies.” “The UAW has an 88-year history of killing jobs and putting people out of work. Before workers are forced to consider joining a potentially harmful labor union, they should have the right to confidentially cast their ballot in private,” Blackburn said.

    Volkswagen union vote in Tennessee to test UAW’s power after victories in Detroit

    April 18, 2024 // More than 4,000 VW workers are eligible to vote, beginning Wednesday and ending at 8 p.m. EDT on Friday. The organizing vote, which is being overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, will need a simple majority to succeed. Fain and others see this week's vote as the union's best shot at organizing the VW plant following the record contracts and strikes at the Detroit automakers, which launched Fain to international prominence as the face of the union last year.

    Opinion: Why union-free workers shouldn’t believe UAW bosses

    April 16, 2024 // Even as laid off unionized autoworkers are expressing their dismay about the UAW brass, Fain and his minions are pouring, by their own account, $40 million in dues money extracted from workers like Woods and Roberson into campaigns to secure monopoly bargaining privileges over currently union-free autoworkers employed in right to work states. Fain’s message to production employees at facilities like the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is that they will get “higher pay, more paid time off and more generous health benefits” if they help UAW officials seize power to “negotiate” how they are compensated and managed. Given the miserable track record of making good on his word, Fain has already established during his still-short tenure as UAW president that there is no good reason Chattanooga or other currently union-free autoworkers ought to believe him.

    Opinion: The UAW vote — gambling with our future

    April 15, 2024 // The UAW talks a lot about solidarity — but solidarity with whom? Unionized VW employees cannot be in "solidarity" with their fellow unionized workers at other foreign auto assembly plants in the U.S. for one simple reason: Every time the UAW has entered a foreign automotive assembly plant in the U.S., that plant has eventually closed. Mitsubishi in Illinois; Toyota in California; Mazda in Michigan; and VW in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania — the last time the UAW made an American Volkswagen plant unprofitable.