UAW President Shawn Fain has called out Stellantis as being “pathetic” in a recent Facebook live broadcast event for United Auto Workers union members. The multi-national automaker conglomerate recently fired scores of full-time workers from its Warren Assembly plant where the Ram 1500 and Jeep Wagoneer are built. Further engineering, tech, and software jobs jobs were cut across the first quarter of 2024, as the company hopes to replace them with lower-salary engineers from Morocco, India, and Brazil, according to Automotive News.
All of this comes just months after the company came to terms with the union in collective bargaining that it would hire 3,200 temp workers on full-time and increase wages up to 25 percent. Instead, the company fired nearly 900 “supplemental employees” so far this year. It seems the company is going back on its deal with the UAW just six months into the ratified contract.
“Honestly, the leadership is pathetic. You got a CEO over there across the pond that wants to talk about how they need to cut costs and all this stuff, but it didn’t stop him from giving himself a 56 percent pay increase.”
Carlos Tavares remains the highest paid of the big-three automaker CEOs, taking home $39 million in compensation for his efforts in 2023, up from $24.8 million in 2022. Based on the average $59,384 salary in the U.S., Tavares makes as much as 657 American workers. It seems like the company could have found that money somewhere else, instead of killing the livelihoods of hundreds of people.
With the contract agreement last November, Stellantis said it would invest $19 billion in new U.S. projects, 25 percent wage increases, destruction of the “tiers” system, and guaranteed full-time status for 3,200 supplemental employees. Instead of hiring those supplemental employees, Stellantis has instead fired hundreds of them and has said more layoffs are coming in the U.S. to “help improve productivity and ensure the company’s long-term sustainability in a rapidly changing global market.”
If Stellantis can’t be trusted to uphold its end of the contract, perhaps it can expect to see picket lines again in the not-too-distant future. You know, to ensure the workers’ long-term sustainability in a rapidly changing global market.