Stellantis says UAW is misrepresenting its proposals, calls for 'reasonable' solution

Jeep maker Stellantis NV said Saturday it offered the United Auto Workers a nearly 21% compounded wage increase and a solution for its idled Illinois plant ahead of the union declaring a strike. It claims UAW officials have misrepresented pieces of its offer.

The company presented its fourth economic offer to the union around 8 p.m. Thursday at Solidarity House ahead of its current contract expiring a minute before midnight that day, Mark Stewart, Stellantis' chief operating officer, said during a virtual roundtable with reporters. Following the deadline, the union declared a strike at Stellantis' Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator plant in Toledo, Ohio, as well as Ford Motor Co.'s Bronco and Ranger plant in Wayne and General Motors Co.'s midsize truck plant in Wentzville, Missouri. It was the first time the union has declared a strike on all three companies simultaneously.

"(UAW President) Shawn Fain, the UAW said they were going to run very much a transparent negotiation, sharing the details of offers and so forth," Stewart said. "So likewise, we're doing the same."

The union did provide Stellantis a counteroffer on Thursday, UAW spokesman Jonah Furman said; he declined to share specifics.

The counteroffer was presented shortly before the union announced its strike targets at 10 p.m. Thursday, tewart said.

"We said it's not an acceptable offer," he said. "It's not an affordable offer. We would be putting the company in jeopardy if we were to agree."

Stellantis' Thursday offer, Stewart said, included a solution for Belvidere Assembly Plant, the former Jeep Cherokee plant in north central Illinois that was idled at the end of February, affecting 1,350 workers. The union was provided the details, but the company isn't sharing them publicly. The solution, however, was contingent on an agreement being reached before the contract expiration, so it will have to be revisited moving forward, Stewart said.

"We were very specific that solution for Belvidere, which included job protection for the folks and some other items that we're not going into the detail with, but it was a very, very good proposal for how to resolve Belvidere," he said. "It was only on the table until contract expiration. So, we were glad to continue to work. We want to have a solution, including that, but we need to all come together and be able to find a reasonable solution that both the company and the union can agree."

UAW President Shawn Fain in a statement criticized the automaker's action, saying the company was using Belvidere workers as "a bargaining chip."

"Belvidere Assembly was a profitable plant that just a few years ago supported around 5,000 workers and their families," he said. "Now that number is zero, and Stellantis wants to keep playing games. Their attitude is: Stellantis giveth, and Stellantis taketh away. Our attitude is: Save Belvidere.”

Notably, Stellantis responded to the union's declaration that the automaker is seeking the unilateral right to close 18 facilities. And at a rally on Friday, UAW Vice President Rich Boyer suggested the company was seeking to close six Mopar aftermarket parts distribution centers.

Stewart said the company's request is related to modernizing Stellantis' facilities, especially those parts distribution centers (PDCs), while "preserving the same number of jobs."

"There's no job elimination with that," he said. "We have a lot of older PDCs, which needs to be modernized, and a lot of the buildings — many of which are rented or not — are not the right ones for what we can do with today's racking, storage and all the technologies that are really developed as we've, as a nation and as a world, transitioned to a lot of things that come to us in boxes every day from people like Amazon, Target, et cetera, but using similar technologies for our people to make their jobs easier without reducing jobs. Changing facilities, yes, but not reducing jobs."

That could entail consolidating and selling underused real estate and facilities, according to a statement from the company sent by spokesperson Ann Marie Fortunate. This also would be part of its efforts to reach its 2038 carbon net zero commitment, it added.

Stewart also said it's Stellantis' position that any decision around production allocation is the company's alone based on the plant's competitiveness and ability to produce a vehicle profitably. That entails more than just the UAW, he noted, but does include absenteeism and the need to have more supplemental workers to cover those absences. In 2022, the rate of unplanned and planned absenteeism was 22%, according to a July proposal from the company. Rates have improved, Stewart said, from efforts by the union and automaker.

"In Shawn's members' demands around job protection and product allocation and things like that," Stewart said, "that was a request from them that we said, 'No, that is a company decision on allocation based on performance of sites.'"

Stellantis said its most recent offer would provide its hourly employees with "cumulative raises of nearly 21%" during the next contract with an immediate 10% increase upon ratification. Boyer told The Detroit News on Friday that the current offer was 19.5% from the automaker. That is not compounded, Furman said. GM and Ford have said they offered a 20% increase. That is not compounded.

About Stellantis' offer, Stewart said, "That's compounded. That's 10% in the first year, and then as we go through, so it's a total of 20% cumulative. You get the extra percent of the year-on-year buildup."

Meanwhile, part-time, lower-paid temporary employees would see their starting wage increase to $20 per hour, up from $15.78, a hike of almost 27%. Stellantis also would slash the time it takes for full-time employees to reach the top of the wage scale to four years, down from eight. These proposals are in line with offers from the other companies, the union has said. Stewart said whether the company would be willing to eliminate all tiers is "subject to the table."

Stellantis said it also has put forth ending the lower wage tier for employees that work at its Mopar aftermarket parts centers. As a result of these proposals, all current full-time employees would reach the top of the pay scale by the end of the agreement.

On the union's cost-of-living adjustment request, Stellantis said it has proposed "an inflation protection measure designed to offset the reduced purchasing power employees have faced over the last few years."

Stellantis didn't provide specifics on profit-sharing, only noting that employees have shared in the company's success with full-time employees receiving a total eligible amount of $44,700 over the past four years.

Stewart said eligible profit-sharing checks for full-time employees since 2009 have been within $6.43 of what workers would have received from COLA.

"We've actually done the exercise of looking at formulas," he said, "versus our profit sharing that we have been doing in the years, and it's almost exactly the same amount from 2009 until this past year of the payments that would have happened from the COLA to keep folks current versus the profit sharing that have kept folks current."

The automaker noted the offer includes other bonuses and health-care coverage that carries no monthly premiums. It included more than $1 billion "in funding and improvements" to the pension and retirement savings plans for both current employees and retirees.

Stewart added that the decision to strike was "disappointing" and that return to a 2009-style contract isn't affordable: "We've got to have a viable industry for the Big Three, and at the end of the day, we have to be able to compete against the non-union competitors here in the U.S. Tesla is already at a much lower cost structure to us, or be it the transplants.

"... It's not about warfare. It's about win-win. It's about us finding something that is great for our folks today, able to keep a future for tomorrow for our folks, for their kids, their grandkids, for our company to be able to continue the investment path we have for electrification and for our US. operations to be strong."

bnoble@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @BreanaCNoble