Latest Stellantis offer has striking UAW members worried for job security
CENTER LINE, Mich. (FOX 2) - The latest offer by Stellantis to striking UAW members have the rank and file worried about possible job cuts.
Ending the tier system and increasing wages have been tentpoles of the UAW strike, but job security is also a huge sticking point.
"We’re here today in solidarity with the UAW because we represent 60 unions - 12 and a half million workers all across this country," said Liz Schuler.
Schuler is the AFL-CIO president and on Tuesday she rallied with Mopar-Stellantis workers in Center Line, demanding a better deal from the Chrysler maker.
"What we’re hearing - no matter if you’re an actor in Hollywood, a nurse, a teacher, a bakery worker who are on strike, it’s the same thing over and over again," she said. "People are fed up, they’re tired of being disrespected, doing more during the pandemic - making sacrifices, working longer hours, and their wages aren’t keeping up."
But as Stellantis touts their latest contract offer to the UAW, workers have growing concerns about job cuts. FOX 2 spoke with the union's Region 1 Director.
"It was mentioned that they want - like this facility, this is a Mopar and they want to shut down 18 facilities," said LaShawn English. "And these people will be moved to other places. And that’s an interruption to your home life, where you live, where your grassroots are. So yeah, that is a big concern."
Stellantis says it made a record offer supporting job security with a 21.4 percent compounded wage increase and $1 billion in retirement security benefits, But union leaders we talked with say there’s still a major disconnect.
"Stellantis has a tendency to say that’s what they offered, but no one has physically seen that - me either," English said.
Labor leaders say things are looking more agreeable with Ford than with Stellantis and General Motors. The pressure is not going away any time soon.
"It could end tomorrow or it could end months from now," said Schuler. "We will stay here as long as it takes."
