:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/adn/D7BLTRKIAZGVPIFDH57PDPW75I.jpeg)
DETROIT — The United Auto Workers and Stellantis NV have reached a tentative agreement toward ending a 44-day strike, according to a source familiar with the information.
The agreement, whose wording is being finalized, mirrors the economics of the tentative deal the union reached with Ford Motor Co. earlier this week, according to the source who only could speak on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to do so publicly.
It also includes product allocation for most U.S. plants, including vehicle assembly at the Belvidere, Illinois, assembly plant that Stellantis idled earlier this year, according to two sources. It comes on the 44th day of the union’s strike against Stellantis and General Motors Co., the same number of days as the original sit-down strike against GM in Flint for which this year’s targeted “stand-up” strike against the Detroit Three was named.
A spokesperson for Stellantis declined to comment.
Stellantis and GM made new offers late this week that match a 25% raise included in Ford’s agreement reached Wednesday that would expire in April 2028.
Stellantis has more than 14,000 UAW members on picket lines at two assembly plants in Sterling Heights and Toledo, Ohio, and parts distribution centers across the country. Close to 10,000 General Motors Co. workers also remain on strike. Hundreds more workers at both companies are laid off because of the downtime.
The UAW’s negotiations with the two automakers intensified after Ford and the union reached a “historic” tentative deal to end a 41-day strike targeting selected plants at the Dearborn automaker, particularly the Blue Oval’s profit engine known as Kentucky Truck Plant, home to Ford’s Super Duty pickups and full-size Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs.
The UAW’s Ford council is expected to meet on Sunday to vote to send the tentative agreement to members, who must then vote whether to ratify it. The deal includes 25% in base wage increases through April 2028 and would raise the top wage, now $32.32 an hour, by over 30% to more than $40 an hour, and raise the starting wage by 68%, to over $28 an hour, over the life of the contract, the UAW said in a news release announcing the deal. Workers would receive an immediate 11% wage increase upon ratification.
Also included are revived cost-of-living adjustments, suspended in the 2007 agreement, and a reduction in the time for new workers to reach the top wage scale from eight years to three years, the union said. The Ford deal also includes improvements for current retirees, workers with pensions, and those who have 401(k) plans. It includes a right to strike over plant closures, a first for the union.
Stellantis in December announced that it was idling at the end of February its Belvidere Assembly Plant, about 70 miles northwest of Chicago, citing the cost of electric vehicles and a microchip shortage. The change in status of the plant affected 1,350 salaried and hourly workers.
The union previously said Stellantis had been offering to put a battery plant there that would open in 2028 as well as a Mopar distribution hub. Stellantis has agreed to all three: vehicle assembly, a battery plant and the Mopar hub, one of the sources said.
“My plant was idled, and now we’re out here doing this,” Alfonso Galindo, 44, of Sylvania, Ohio, who transferred to Stellantis’ Toledo Assembly Plant in July after Belvidere idled, said on the picket line on Saturday morning. “I’d love to go back.”
The union had elevated its strike against both Stellantis and GM this week. On Monday, the UAW directed 6,800 members at Stellantis’ Ram 1500 plant in Sterling Heights to go on strike. On Tuesday, hours after GM said the strike had cost it $800 million, the UAW sent out another 5,000 workers at its most profitable plant in Arlington, Texas, which makes full-size SUVs.
Flin Fike, 57, of Farmington Hills, who works in skilled trades at Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, said he wishes the 25% wage increase would come all at once given the increases in inflation over the past few years.
“It seems like it would be a better gratitude toward us.,” the 36-year UAW member said. “Because it’s like making us wait. Eleven percent is really only a $3 raise.”
Since Sept. 15, workers at Stellantis’ Toledo Assembly Plant, home of the Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator, have been on strike. Workers on the picket line Saturday morning said they were hesitant to give resounding approval to the deal reached with Ford without all of the specifics, but several said they were ready to get back to work.
“Twenty-five percent and COLA? That sounds pretty good,” said Sonny Lizcano, 32, of Toledo, a 12-year UAW member. “But I want to see the full details.”