STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. — To Ruth Breeden, whose job is to assemble Ram trucks in this Detroit suburb, a simmering dispute between the United Auto Workers union and Stellantis isn’t merely about whether her employer will reopen a distant factory in Illinois. To her, the standoff is a danger sign for all UAW workers.
Belvidere, Illinois, is the site of an assembly plant that Stellantis had pledged to reopen under a contract it forged last year with the union. But the company, which reported poor sales and earnings this year, has delayed the reopening given what it calls unfavorable “market conditions.” Stellantis says it will eventually meet its commitment to reopen the plant.
Yet no date has been given for the company to restart the factory or to open a new battery plant and a new parts warehouse, both which were also promised in the contract agreement that ended the UAW’s strike against Stellantis last year. At stake are about 2,700 jobs.
Breeden and other union members say they fear that Stellantis will break other commitments in other states, eventually jeopardizing their jobs.
“It’s the whole company,” she said at a union rally last month in front of her factory in Sterling Heights. “Who knows which plant is next?”
Anxious and angry about Stellantis’ delay, union leaders have threatened to strike, a move that could extend beyond Stellantis. Labor experts say its two Detroit-area rivals, Ford and General Motors, are watching as they weigh their own strategies, including whether to move future production sites out of the United States and away from the UAW.
Detroit automakers have been expanding production in Mexico for years. And after last fall’s strikes shut down a Ford truck plant, its CEO warned that the company would have to rethink where it builds new vehicles.
“There’s plenty of history of the U.S. manufacturing sector moving its operations to low-wage countries,” said Bob Bruno, a labor and employment relations professor at the University of Illinois. “It seems reasonable to me for the UAW to be concerned about not opening here, not investing here, but beginning to move operations someplace else as the company looks at essentially how they can build their cars for the cheapest cost.”
In February 2023, the last Jeep Cherokee small SUV rolled off the line at the Belvidere Assembly Plant, about an hour northwest of Chicago, and 1,350 workers were laid off. Stellantis had plans to shutter the factory for good.
A few months later,…
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