The morning after being called out on national television by United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain during the Democratic National Convention, Stellantis has confirmed it is delaying plans to reopen the shuttered Belvidere Assembly Plant.
The automaker said, however, it stands by its commitment and warned the UAW against taking any strike action.
The UAW is threatening a national strike against Stellantis for allegedly violating a labor agreement reached last year in which it committed to investing $5 billion to restart the plant in Belvidere, Illinois, and hire back thousands of workers.
In a news release Monday, the UAW said “tens of thousands” of workers from several large locals are prepared to file grievances against Stellantis, “paving the way” for a strike.
During his rousing opening night speech Monday at the DNC inside the United Center, Fain singled out Stellantis for threatening the “life-changing gains” achieved in the UAW’s strike against the Big Three automakers.
“A year later, one company wants to go back on their commitments in our contract,” Fain said, donning a red UAW T-shirt emblazoned with “TRUMP IS A SCAB” across the front. “Stellantis must keep the promises they made to America in our union contract, and the UAW will take whatever action necessary to Stellantis or any other corporation, to stand up and hold corporate America accountable.”
On Tuesday morning, Stellantis issued a statement confirming it has delayed plans for restarting the Belvidere plant due to changing market conditions, but “firmly stands by its commitment” in the UAW agreement.
“To ensure the company’s future competitiveness and sustainability, which are necessary to preserve U.S. manufacturing jobs, it is critical that the business case for all investments is aligned with market conditions and our ability to accommodate a wide range of consumer demands,” Stellantis said in its statement.
In November, Stellantis committed to investing nearly $5 billion to retool the plant for production of a new midsize truck, build an adjacent electric vehicle battery plant and create a “megahub” parts distribution center. Part of an agreement to end a six-week strike by the UAW against the Big Three automakers, the plan is expected to bring thousands of jobs back to Belvidere.
The union’s grievance states that Stellantis told the union it would not launch the megahub parts center this year or begin stamping operations next year as planned. In addition, Stellantis said it would not launch the midsize truck production by 2027 as originally scheduled, according to the grievance.
There was no mention by the UAW about the planned 2028 launch of the EV battery plant.
“They say they want to ‘delay’ reopening Belvidere Assembly but they really want to kick the can past our contract expiration so they can suddenly cite ‘market conditions’ again and never open this plant, never repair the damage they’ve done to thousands of autoworkers and their families,” Fain said in an email Tuesday.
The creation of the $100 million Belvidere megahub would also mark the end of the 30-year-old Stellantis parts distribution center in Naperville, which is being absorbed into the new facility. The 95 workers at the Naperville parts center, who went on strike last year, would be able to transfer to Belvidere when it opens, the automaker said.
More than half a dozen UAW locals have already filed grievances with the company as of Tuesday afternoon, the union said.
In its statement, Stellantis challenged the UAW’s right to strike over the delay, citing the terms of an investment letter committing to restarting Belvidere as part of the collective bargaining agreement.
“The UAW agreed to language that expressly allows the company to modify product investments and employment levels,” Stellantis said. “Therefore, the union cannot legally strike over a violation of this letter at this time.”
A Stellantis spokesperson declined to comment beyond the statement Tuesday.
In February 2023, Stellantis indefinitely idled the assembly plant and laid off its last 1,200 workers after halting production of the Jeep Cherokee amid dwindling sales. The Belvidere plant, which opened in 1965 under the Chrysler banner, had been building the Cherokee SUV since 2017.
The plant had more than 5,000 workers on three shifts as recently as 2019, but demand for the Cherokee waned and downsizing accelerated under new owner Stellantis, which was formed by the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Peugeot of France in January 2021.
The UAW and Illinois legislators made restarting the plant a priority throughout the strike negotiations with Stellantis.
In November, President Joe Biden came to Belvidere to celebrate the UAW-Stellantis agreement to reopen the plant, joining Fain and a jubilant crowd of autoworkers. Both Biden and Fain spoke Monday during the first night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Stellantis hired back 165 laid-off employees in December to work in parts distribution. In May, however, 130 of those workers were temporarily laid off, the company said.
The Belvidere plant is in line for a $334 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the Biden administration’s plan to incentivize the transition to electric vehicles.
In addition to the federal money, the state is still putting together its own financial incentive package for Stellantis, employing everything from a $400 million manufacturing relocation closing fund to tax discounts for shifting to EV production.
rchannick@chicagotribune.com
