Chrysler parent company Stellantis and the US union United Auto Workers (UAW) have tentatively agreed on a new labor contract after a six-week strike. Like the agreement reached with Ford on Thursday, this contract also has a term of four and a half years and includes record wage increases, the UAW said: The agreement includes a 25 percent wage increase for employees and an agreement on the reopening of the The group’s assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois. As UAW Vice President Rich Boyer said in a video message, Stellantis also agreed to build a battery plant in Belvidere. In total, the automaker has committed to new investments of $19 billion in US operations and the creation of 5,000 additional jobs. “We look forward to welcoming our 43,000 employees back to work and resuming operations,” said Stellantis.
US President Joe Biden, who expressed solidarity with workers at Stellantis, Ford and GM at the start of the strike, welcomed the agreement. In a statement, he said the contract was a testament to the power of unions and collective bargaining to create important jobs for the middle class. Union negotiators had already reached a tentative agreement with Ford this week. The employees there received an immediate wage increase of eleven percent. Taking compound interest and cost of living into account, the UAW even negotiated a wage increase of around 33 percent over the entire term of the contract.
However, there is still no agreement between the UAW and General Motors (GM). That’s why the union announced that it would extend the strike to the largest GM plant in North America in Spring Hill, Tennessee, with a total of 4,000 employees. “We are disappointed by GM’s unnecessary and irresponsible refusal to reach a fair agreement,” said UAW President Shawn Fain. Economic losses from the UAW strike total $9.3 billion, according to Anderson Economic Group estimates.