The United Auto Workers union last month reached impressive tentative agreements with the so-called Big Three automakers Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, suspending a roughly six-week strike involving tens of thousands of workers across the country.
Workers at General Motors narrowly approved their agreement Thursday, with 55% of UAW-represented workers in support, while union members at Ford are projected to approve the agreement by a more decisive margin. Employees of Stellantis, formerly known as Chrysler, are also projected to approve the deal.
The agreement with Stellantis, which operates an auto parts warehouse in Orlando, offers some major gains, coming out of the union’s first-ever strike against all three auto companies simultaneously. First, it offers workers their largest pay raises in decades: a 25% increase to base pay over the next four and a half years, up from a 14.5% offer that Stellantis, owner of the Jeep and Dodge brands, had first pitched ahead of the strike.
It also includes the elimination of divisive wage tiers (which will boost some workers’ pay much higher), a $5,000 ratification bonus, the right to strike over plant closures, and the restoration of a cost-of-living allowance that workers surrendered when their employer faced bankruptcy after the 2008 financial crisis. Incredibly, Stellantis additionally agreed to reopen a car assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois, idled since February, where thousands of workers had been laid off.
“We didn’t do it by begging the company, or agreeing to work terrible hours, or take a pay cut or pursue a race to the bottom,” said UAW president Shawn Fain, who took negotiations down a more aggressive path this year, embracing the union’s militant roots.
“We didn’t do it by giving back,” Fain continued. “We did it by fighting back.”
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UAW reaches tentative deal with Stellantis, suspending strike in Orlando and across the country
The union has described the new contract as “historic” after decades of concessions accepted by former union leadership: A “record contract” to match record profits reported by the Big Three automakers (with Stellantis leading the pack, reporting $12 billion in net profits in the first half of this year alone).
Ron Stone, a longtime worker of 26 years in Orlando, generally agrees with this assessment. “They did away with tiers, they [employees] are at top [pay] rate in three years, we got COLA back,” he told Orlando Weekly. “You can’t beat this contract.”
But Stone and other auto workers in Orlando now face an unexpected provision of the agreement: The expected consolidation of their facility, which employs about 80 union members, with another parts center in Atlanta.
Together, labor from both will form a new “mega” parts distribution center in Macon, Georgia in 2026 — a $30 million company investment.
Broadly, this means the Stellantis facility in Orlando, which is part of the company’s Mopar services division, is expected close within the next few years. Several Mopar centers elsewhere in the country — from Los Angeles to Boston — face a similar fate.
Under the deal, workers in Orlando would be able to transfer to the upcoming Macon facility, or leave the job to find work elsewhere in Central Florida. Workers who choose to transfer would receive a moving allowance of up to $37,500 — an enhanced allowance negotiated by the union under its deal with the company.
Some older workers, including longtime workers Orlando Weekly previously spoke to, could also choose to retire ahead of the closure. Gale Carson, a benefits rep at the Orlando depot who’s nearing retirement age, said she’s not ready to retire, but hasn’t made up her mind yet on what she’ll do if the facility closes. “I’d like to work until I’m 70,” she said, with a laugh. She’s worked in auto parts for over 20 years.
“But, you know, it would be a game time decision for me to see if there were any early retirement packages, or anything being offered, and pretty much where I am personally at that time,” she said.
A win and a loss: Orlando plant closes as part of new contract
Union leadership admits this consolidation plan, pushed by the company, wasn’t ideal.
“The company gave us two choices for MOPAR: to either consolidate facilities and gain jobs, or close facilities and lose jobs,” union leaders shared in a document highlighting details of the Stellantis agreement.
“The choice to consolidate these facilities was difficult,” they added, “but we came out of it with the elimination of the lower wage tier at MOPAR, a guarantee of job security, and the right to bargain for an expanded moving allowance beyond the $37,500 we already won.”
Stone told Orlando Weekly that the workforce at the Orlando parts depot, located near the Orlando International Airport, was split on it.
Most of the workers, he said, were already transfers who weren’t hired locally. Many folks had transferred to Orlando from places like Belvidere (where their shuttered plant is now expected to be revived) or New Castle, Indiana, where former Chrysler locations either closed or were bought out.
So, it’s a familiar song and dance. Some people, Stone said, welcome the change in scenery. They don’t like Florida and feel ready to go. Others are exasperated over the prospect of facing yet another big move, uprooting their lives — some have families to consider.
“I’ve been here 20 years,” Stone told Orlando Weekly. “So I don’t really want to do it. But if I have to, I will.”
Stone transferred to the Orlando parts center from New Castle about 20 years ago, when a plant there was sold by Chrysler to a different company. At the time, he had a wife and two children in tow — a 7-year-old and a 14-year-old. A number of other workers at the Orlando depot similarly came from New Castle, a small city that was never quite the same after Chrysler sold.
The moving allowance the union secured for workers back then — $25,000 — helped Stone’s family “tremendously.”
“It really pulled us through,” he said.
Dwight Brubaker, a second-generation member of UAW Local 1649 who’s from the Orlando area, said he’s generally happy with the agreement. As a salaried employee, Brubaker hasn’t gotten a raise in eight years. This new agreement will change that.
Additionally, he said it also includes much-appreciated improvements to health benefits. “That means a lot, especially as all of us are getting older and trips to the doctor seem to come more often than before,” Brubaker told Orlando Weekly.
The elimination of Stellantis’ tiered wage system is also a big victory. “This was one of the biggest reasons the UAW was striking,” said Brubaker, who serves as recording secretary for his local.
Past agreements had allowed their employer — formerly known as Chrysler — to establish a system that placed longtime workers, hired before 2007, on a different wage and benefits scale than workers hired after.
Under that system, all workers are hired on as temporary workers who are paid less and receive fewer benefits, despite doing the same jobs as older, “legacy” employees. Over time, it gradually took longer and longer — not just months, but years — for temps to be offered permanent jobs. And even if they were, they’d still be on that lower wage scale.
Under the new contract, thousands of temps will be converted to permanent employees immediately upon contract ratification. No worker, including those hired after, would spend more than nine months as a temp following ratification. Current temps, according to the UAW, could see raises of up to 168% over the life of the contract. Starting pay alone would jump from $15.78 an hour to $21 an hour immediately.
That elimination of the wage tier for temps could be “life-changing” for younger employees, said Brubaker, whose father was a founding member of Local 1649.
Still, he admits the consolidation plan was “unexpected.” He did note that, importantly, there’s still time for workers to “plan, prepare, and make some decisions.”
Some Stellantis employees elsewhere in the country have been vocally opposed to the deal. One worker in Boston, whose depot is slated to be consolidated, described it as a “blow to the face.”
“They didn’t have to merge us,” Mark Anderson, a union member at Stellantis’ Boston parts center, told the Boston Globe. “Our union could have done better. They could’ve saved us.”
Stone, from Orlando, did admit he wished the agreement included a 25% wage boost upfront, to make up for lost time. Average wages for U.S. auto workers have fallen by 30% over the past 20 years, adjusting for inflation.
Chrysler demanded concessions from the union for decades — freezing wages, snatching up vacation days, and taking away the right to strike while a contract was intact.
Then, when the Great Recession hit about 15 years ago, not only did Chrysler’s union workers surrender pay raises, defined pension plans for future employees, and other benefits — the Bush administration also pledged billions of dollars to rescue the auto manufacturer as Chrysler faced bankruptcy. So did the Carter administration, back in 1979.
Carson remembers the days of the Great Recession-era concessions well. “We were told, ‘Oh, once we get back on our feet, you know, we’ll take care of you,’” she explained to Orlando Weekly on the picket line, the first day that workers walked off the job on Sept. 22. “We’re just trying to get back all the things we lost.”
Today, Carson (who says she’s glad to be back at work) agreed with Stone’s assessment that those at the Orlando parts depot were split on the new contract, which was approved by workers of Local 1649 on Tuesday with 68% support.
Younger people hired after 2007 who aren’t currently guaranteed a pension, she said, were less supportive of the consolidation provision, which could force a decision to either leave the job, or leave the state.
But there was also a broad understanding that they wouldn’t necessarily get everything they had asked for. The union began with several eyebrow-raising demands that included a 40% wage increase over the life of the contract (to match average raises given to the Big Three CEOs, who rake in multi-millions), the restoration of traditional retiree pension plans for all and a 32-hour work week.
The 32-hour work week didn’t happen, nor did pensions for all, although the union did secure the first increase to pension plans in years, plus an improved 401(k) for workers hired post-2007. “You never ever get everything that you asked for,” Carson said of the process. “So you always ask for above and beyond.”
The union has described the new contract as “historic” after decades of concessions accepted by former union leadership
To her, that doesn’t mean their gains, negotiated under the leadership of president Shawn Fain and a slate of other union reformers elected in an upset victory earlier this year, weren’t significant.
“We’ve set the footprint out of getting back what we’ve lost over the years, so it’s a step in the right direction, as far as I’m concerned,” Carson said. “And I think a lot of people felt the same way. It’s the beginning of getting it back.”
Workers at the Orlando parts center approved the agreement with nearly 68% of voting members in favor and 32% of workers against. All in all, 62 workers participated in the vote, representing a turnout of about 80%.
Just three Stellantis locations so far have voted against the agreement: a large Jeep plant in Toledo, which employs thousands of workers, and two parts depots in Boston and Marysville that, like Orlando’s, are slated for consolidation.
“UAW: That stands for ‘You Are Welcome’”
Beyond the direct implications for employees for the Big Three, the gains of the agreements reached between the automakers and the UAW are already spreading industry-wide.
Automakers Toyota, Honda, Subaru and Hyundai — which are all nonunion — announced their own wage increases shortly after the UAW reached its new contract agreements with the Big Three. Subaru is the latest to come out with their own sweetened deal for employees in light of the recent labor deals. Union leaders have called this the “UAW bump” — rightfully taking credit for the gains offered to workers that they see as part of the future UAW family.
“They could have just as easily raised wages a month ago or a year ago,” said UAW President Fain, after Toyota became the first nonunion automaker to announce pay bumps. “They did it now because the company knows we’re coming for ’em.”
Stone raised the point that while nonunion automakers can say they’re going to offer higher pay, they don’t offer the same benefits the Big Three do — benefits the union fought for over decades. That, he said, is the union difference.
“It’s just a way to keep the union out,” he argued, evidently unimpressed. (It’s worth noting that the non-union Universal Orlando Resort pulls a similar move each time the Disney unions go back to the bargaining table, too.)
Shawn Fain, who himself hails from Indiana, told In These Times that hundreds of workers have been reaching out to the union daily, wanting to join. “UAW, that stands for ‘You Are Welcome,” Fain shared in a live-stream earlier this month — referring both to the welcoming arms of the union and the so-called “UAW bump.”
Union leaders, from the start of negotiations, emphasized the significance they envision their fight having not just for workers employed by the Big Three auto companies, or even the broader auto industry, but working people across all sectors of the economy.
Unions fought for things most people take for granted these days, like the eight-hour work day, a minimum wage, and the right to organize and help raise standards in workplaces everywhere, even for workers in nonunion jobs.
That first day Orlando auto workers joined the national UAW strike, on Sept. 22, Orlando Weekly asked the local’s vice president, Tovic Powell, what he wanted to tell the public. Clad in a bright red shirt, adopting a tall, proud stance, Powell said with little hesitation, “Every job in America should be a union job.”
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This article appears in Holiday Guide 2023.