Stellantis boosts wage hike offer, seeks concessions, UAW says

Jeep maker Stellantis NV's latest offer to the United Auto Workers includes hiking wages by 19.5%, consolidating aftersales parts plants, making salaried workers hourly and increasing the number of supplemental workers the company can use, while not making commitments around future product and investments, according to the union.

UAW Vice President Rich Boyer, who heads the Detroit-based union's Stellantis Department, announced some of the details of Stellantis' latest offer in an expletive-laced speech late Friday afternoon during a rally in downtown Detroit. He criticized the proposal as "concessionary" and a result of concerns over the electrification transition.

"We've been listening to the SOBs talk about how greedy" the union's demands are, Boyer said. "Them guys are greedy crooks. You're all full of s---. Every one of them."

He warned workers against being lured by potential actions of the company seeking to return employees on strike to work with wage and benefit offers, getting the crowd to shout, "B-------!"

A request for comment was left with a representative for Stellantis following Boyer's remarks.

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As the UAW declared a strike early Friday, a statement sent by Stellantis spokesperson Jodi Tinson criticized the union's leadership for refusing "to engage in a responsible manner to reach a fair agreement in the best interest of our employees, their families and our customers."

Stellantis posted a $12.1 billion record net profit in the first half of 2023, including a best-yet $8.88 billion adjusted operating income in North America. It has yet to launch an EV in the United States.

UAW spokesman Jonah Furman said the union provided a counter proposal to Stellantis on Thursday evening.

"We're not asking for much," Boyer told The Detroit News. "All our workers want is job security and a decent wage to go to the grocery store, put gas in their car, support their family and not have to work 60 to 70 hours to do it."

The 19.5% wage increase, which Boyer mentioned to The News, is up from Stellantis' previous offer of 17.5%, but still remains below 20% hikes proposed by General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. The top wage for production operators at Stellantis already is less than its crosstown rivals — $31.77 per hour compared to $32.32.

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Boyer told attendees at the rally that the company wants to close six Mopar parts plants. The automaker has 20 in the United States. In 2022, the automaker said it wanted to increase revenues from its aftermarket division by 50% and reduce its warehouse square footage by 20% by 2030.

Additionally, the automaker is seeking to convert UAW-represented salaried employees to hourly workers, Boyer told The News. Stellantis employs more salaried workers who are unionized than its Detroit Three counterparts. They make up 5% of its 43,000 UAW members.

The North American region has been directed to reduce its salaried workforce by a certain percentage, Boyer told The News, as a part of the transatlantic automaker's bid to reduce costs. CEO Carlos Tavares has said it costs 40% more to make an EV over an internal combustion engine vehicle, so the automaker and its supply chain must absorb that increase to keep the new car market accessible to the middle class. Converting the UAW-represented employees to hourly would support those targets, Boyer said.

"They said they have to cut X% of the salaried workforce," he said, "so they want to cut our bargaining unit instead of those who are not."

Stellantis did offer buyouts to 2,500 U.S. salaried employees in April as well as 31,000 hourly workers in the United States and Canada. That followed buyout opportunities for salaried employees in previous years, as well.

Meanwhile, the automaker hasn't committed to any investments or product over the period of the next contract, Boyer told The News.

"They haven't given us a product list for the next few years," he said. "They're supposed to launch eight to 10 new vehicles in the next five to 10 years. We haven't seen anything."

Stellantis has said by 2030, it will have 25 all-electric models available in the United States. It hasn't launched any of those so far.

Boyer at the end of August during a Solidarity Rally said the automaker was suggesting it could move production of the internal combustion engine Ram 1500 truck elsewhere from its current home at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant.

"They say the 1500 ICE will stay at SHAP," Boyer told The News. "I don't know if I believe what they say." He characterized the talks as "very tense."

It's likely the all-electric Ram 1500 REV will end up at SHAP, as well, Boyer told The News, but no commitments have been made.

The UAW vice president at the rally on Friday also criticized the proposal because it would allow the automaker to increase the number of supplemental workers it employs. These are lower-paid, temporary part-time workers who start at $15.78 per hour and fill in on the line when there are absences. They make up about 12% of Stellantis' workforce, the most of the Detroit Three. A previous proposal from the automaker offered increasing the starting pay of those employees to $20 per hour.

Workers on strike at Stellantis' Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio, say rolling over supplemental workers to full-time status is a core issue for them.

"I feel it's necessary," Krystal Baker, 37, of Toledo, a UAW member for 10 years, said about the strike. "It's our time. Some of them have been temporary for six years. They need to be rolled over. Everything in the economy is going up" in price.

James Rice, 29, of Toledo is one of those workers. He started at the plant less than a year ago.

"I feel that TPTs deserve equal pay," he said. "Your paycheck covers the cost of your rent and food, and that's it, not even gas."

The $20 per hour is a "nice minimum wage," Rice added, "but it's not enough."

Boyer's home plant is Toledo. He walked workers out of the plant Thursday night who were among the 3,700 at sites the UAW decided to target for its strike that began after contracts expired a minute before midnight. He said the Jeep plant was chosen alongside Ford's Bronco plant in Wayne and GM's midsize pickup plant in Wentzville, Missouri, because "it's the Wrangler. It's one of their top moneymakers."

Many factors were considered in the selection of the plants, Boyer told The News. In addition to them producing popular and profitable products, their vehicles have high rates of conquests — more than 50%, according to auto information website Edmunds.com Inc. They also were some of the least likely plants to take out feeder plants, since the sites producing their powertrains supply other assembly plants, as well.

"We're only trying to get their attention," Boyer told The News. "We're not trying to kill or annihilate them. To paraphrase from Dr. Martin Luther King, he said a strike is not about being greedy or selfish. It's about dignity and respect."

bnoble@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @BreanaCNoble

Staff Writer Jordyn Grzelewski contributed.