DETROIT – Today, the UAW released a video exposing a robocall campaign by Stellantis telling tens of thousands of UAW members to vote no on a potential strike authorization vote. In August, the union filed grievances against Stellantis for violating product and investment commitments in its current contract and the grievance process could escalate to a strike.
The video can be accessed here and the media is invited to use the footage.
The new video is narrated by UAW President Shawn Fain. “Stellantis management is literally saying we’re going to eliminate your job and gut your community, but we would appreciate your support,” Fain says in the video. “The company has NO BUSINESS telling you how to vote. But it’s clear that Stellantis is scared.”
The video is dropping on the same day that Stellantis members and allies are holding a 3:30 p.m. rally and march at UAW Local 1264 at Stellantis’ Sterling Stamping Plant.
In the UAW’s 2023 contract, the union won major gains, including a commitment from Stellantis to reopen an idled assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois, and to build the Dodge Durango in Detroit. Now the company is trying to backtrack on those commitments.
In the 2023 contract, the UAW also won the right to strike over product and investment commitments, and the union’s members are preparing to strike if necessary to make Stellantis Keep the Promise.
The full transcript of President Fain’s narration is below:
Carlos Tavares is out of control, and it’s once again up to UAW members to save this company from itself.
The company has sent robocalls to tens of thousands of UAW members trying to tell us how to vote on a strike authorization.
Let me break this down for you.
Stellantis management is literally saying we’re going to eliminate your job and gut your community, but we would appreciate your support.
The company has NO BUSINESS telling you how to vote.
But it’s clear that Stellantis is scared.
They’re scared that our union will finally start fighting back to save our plants and save our jobs.
For years this company picked us off plant by plant and our union took no action.
That’s why it was so important for us to win the right to strike over violations of the product commitments in our historic 2023 contract.
And now the company is scared.
They’re scared because rather than picking us off we now have the power to stand up together.
They’re scared of the power of our membership.
Stellantis is desperate to keep going down a path of cutting short-term costs even if it kills this company.
That path is a DEAD END.
And if UAW members have to strike to make them change course and keep their promise to America, that’s exactly what we’ll do.
Here’s Carlos Tavares’ plan for this company:
Carlos Tavares wants to kill good jobs in America and shift 80 percent of production to so-called “low-cost countries.”
These are high-exploitation, low-wage countries where workers make pennies on the dollar so Stellantis can ship the product back into the USA at an insane profit.
And Tavares is going to have his way, unless we in the UAW join together to stop him.
Carlos Tavares also wants to cut staffing and investment to the bone.
And that has real consequences for real people.
The lives of thousands of families in Belvidere, Ill., are hanging in the balance, as Stellantis tries to back out of their promise to reopen that plant.
Thousands of Michigan workers are under threat as Stellantis tries to back out of their commitments for the Dodge Durango at the Detroit Assembly Complex.
Carlos Tavares is also turning good union jobs into dangerous jobs.
At Stellantis’ Toledo Assembly plant in Ohio, one of our union brothers recently lost his life on the assembly line.
That’s what happens when you cut staffing to the bone, and force people to work endless hours.
It’s not safe. It’s not fair. And it’s not right.
Carlos Tavares is driving this company into the ground. Literally.
In Toledo, a smokestack recently collapsed and crushed an employee’s car – a Dodge Durango.
But we will not let Carlos Tavares continue to tear this company down.
For decades Stellantis management has been more than happy to sacrifice autoworker jobs and our communities at the altar of corporate greed.
The UAW has two words for Carlos Taveres and Stellantis: HELL NO.
If it takes a fight, we’ll fight.
If it takes a strike, we’ll strike.
Carlos, we’re voting yes.
To make Stellantis Keep The Promise.
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