Read

Good evening UAW family,

Tonight, I want to talk about the future of our jobs, our union, and our country.

I ran to be your UAW President because I was sick and tired of the company union philosophy while plants closed and our members and working-class people fell further and further behind.

The story of the past forty years is a one-sided class war waged by the billionaire class against working families.

Working class people’s share of the pie, quality of life, and even life expectancy has fallen, while billionaires and corporate executives have gotten richer and more powerful.

They do it in all kinds of ways.

They rig the economy.

They rig the political system.

They rig the legal system.

They’ve attacked our unions, and turned us against one another.

In manufacturing, they use the most brutal tool of all: plant closures.

The result has been the death of the American Dream.

Generations of Americans fought tooth and nail to turn manufacturing jobs into good union jobs.

A hundred years ago, massive factories sprouted up across this country.

People like my grandparents fought like hell to turn those factory towns into places where they were proud to raise their families.

Places like Kokomo, Indiana became somewhere a working class family could live a decent life on a union contract.

In the past forty years, corporate America has pulled the rug out from under those communities.

They close the plants, ship the jobs overseas, and then import the product back to America—which remains the most lucrative consumer market on Earth.

We have forty years of history showing that Corporate America is more than happy to destroy communities, destroy lives, and destroy families for an extra percentage point on their profit margin.

And if that wasn’t enough, Corporate America turns around and blames the devastation THEY have caused on the American worker.

They blame us for daring to ask for a living wage, for healthcare, for a secure retirement, and some time with our family.

They do this in hard times, kicking working class people when we’re down.

But Corporations are also more than happy to do this in good times, and Wall Street rewards them.

Over the past 25 years, Stellantis has closed, sold, or idled 18 manufacturing facilities, killing tens of thousands of jobs and decimating communities and ripping families apart.

That happened despite the billions in taxpayer dollars our country has given to this company.

That happened despite massive concessions in our union contracts over the years.

That happened despite record profits for the past decade.

They closed plants when we “worked together” with the company.

They have closed plants when we have fought back.

And every time, they blame the autoworker.

But we know the truth.

The truth is that every plant closure is the decision of corporate executives.

Communities were decimated so an executive could buy another mansion.

Families were ripped apart so rich shareholders could buy another yacht.

The decision to close plants has nothing to do with workers fighting for a better life and everything to do with corporate greed.

Many of you have experienced the devastation of plant closures.

Some of you are living through one right now.

Plant closures are bombs dropped by Corporate America on the working class.

They are the direct cause of divorce, devastation, addiction, and even suicide.

And they are completely preventable.

But for too long our labor movement has been either unable or unwilling to fight them.

To fight to keep plants open, here in America.

To tell corporate America that an extra billion on their bottom line is not going to be paid for with the lives of working class people.

There comes a time when we have to Stand Up.

For our UAW family at Stellantis, that time is now.

We can’t stand by while this company tears communities apart.

After billions in taxpayer bailouts and decades of support from American workers and consumers, Stellantis has declared war on the American working class.

The company has decided to respond to our support by abandoning their workers, their dealers, their consumers, and the American taxpayer.

We are here tonight to save this company from themselves.

And to save our communities from the war on the working class.

Tonight, I’m going to talk about how we’re preparing to take action at Stellantis to enforce our contract, and make this company Keep The Promise they made to the American people.

Up to and including national strike action, if necessary.

Last year, in our Stand Up Strike, we went on offense, and we won.

And that pissed off a lot of people in corporate America.

But what the billionaires feared most wasn’t our wage increases.

It wasn’t our COLA.

It wasn’t ending wage tiers, or winning billions in retirement, or a pathway to organizing the battery plants.

What the billionaire class fears is letting working class people think that you can win.

What they want is for you to give up.

They want you to think a better life isn’t possible, so you won’t fight for it.

They want you to sit down, shut up and accept whatever scraps they are willing to give you.

And that’s the game we’re seeing right now from Stellantis.

What you’ll hear from the company, and sadly, some members who have been brainwashed to believe it, is that our contracts made things too expensive for the company.

Stellantis wants everyone to believe they simply can’t afford to keep their commitments to American autoworkers.

But let’s be clear: Stellantis is one of the most profitable auto companies in the world.

They are currently raking in billions in profits.

Stellantis has generated more than $1.3 TRILLION in revenue over the last decade.

And they’ve made more than $115 BILLION in profits over the last decade.

Over the last three years, Stellantis has made record profits with margins among the highest in the industry.

Stellantis is rolling in the dough.

They have so much money that they have committed to spending $3 BILLION on stock buy backs this year alone.

They make their money off of OUR plants in America.

Selling to OUR market, in America.

Off of OUR work as UAW autoworkers.

The problem isn’t that Stellantis workers are making too much.

The problem is that no amount of profit for Stellantis executives like Carlos Tavares will EVER be enough.

It’s not our contracts causing the company to attack us.

But there is one clause in our contract that Stellantis is very, very worried about.

In our 2023 contract negotiations, we made damn sure to win not just billions in product and investment commitments.

We fought for, and won, the right to STRIKE over that product and investment.

We did this because we have all seen the Big Three trample our agreements.

It felt like every round of contract negotiations, we would win job security language just for the companies to skirt our agreements by breaking out the dictionary and finding a new word for closing a plant.

They claimed they weren’t closing a plant, they were “unallocating” it, like GM did at Lordstown Assembly.

They’re not closing, they’re just “indefinitely idled,” like Stellantis claimed at Belvidere Assembly.

The companies would trample our agreements and UAW members and their families were left waiting YEARS for our grievances to slowly wind their way through the arbitration process.

By that time, communities were destroyed and autoworkers were scattered across the country.

We knew, especially during this EV transition, that it might be a bumpy road ahead in the life of this contract.

So we won expanded job security language, where workers get more pay and healthcare benefits in case of a layoff.

But we also won the right to strike over the product and investment commitments the companies agreed to during bargaining.

Those investment commitments weren’t just words on paper.

They were the result of bargaining.

We negotiated them with the clear intent of protecting our jobs and protecting American manufacturing.

And to secure that language, we gave up other things we were asking for at the negotiating table.

So we’re damn sure not going to turn around and just let Stellantis violate our agreement and destroy thousands of good blue-collar jobs in America.

The right to strike over product and investment is new to the UAW.

So I want to take some time to walk you through this. Because if we want to win this fight, we need to be educated, organized, and above all united as we take action.

In our UAW Stellantis agreement, product and investment commitments are covered by the 311 letter.

In our 2023 negotiations, we secured $19 billion in product & investment commitments from Stellantis.

This letter shows those commitments.

It lists out each plant that the company agreed to invest in, and the product or investment they committed to during negotiations.

We bargained this at the table, and the membership ratified this agreement.

This is in our contract.

This is binding.

This is enforceable by the grievance procedure and by taking strike action. And we intend to enforce it.

Right now, the company is planning to VIOLATE this agreement.

They COMMITTED to a MOPAR hub in Belvidere in 2024. A stamping plant in Belvidere in 2025. And an Assembly plant in Belvidere by 2027.

And now they are admitting they do NOT plan to honor those plans.

They claim to be delaying the assembly plant just by a year, but it is no coincidence that they want to push the date to beyond the life of this contract.

But pushing the product outside the date of the agreement means we have no agreement.

It means that Stellantis will make us renegotiate product for Belvidere when we come back to the bargaining table in 2028.

THAT’S NOT HAPPENING.

And this isn’t charity for our brothers and sisters at Belvidere.

This is about enforcing a contract for ALL of us.

We ALL sacrificed something to win these product and investment commitments.

We ALL are at risk if the company can violate these agreements.

And we ALL have a responsibility to stick together to force this company to Keep the Promise.

So we filed grievances at 28 Stellantis locals covering tens of thousands of UAW members.

Here’s how that process works, because it’s important to understand.

The grievance procedure has 3 steps.

The first step gives the company 5 days to respond.

If they don’t resolve the issue, it goes to step 2.

They then have 7 more days to respond.

If that doesn’t resolve it, it goes to step 3.

The company gets 7 more days to respond.

If it’s still not resolved, each local has a 60-day window to take a strike authorization vote and notify the company.

Once we’ve authorized a strike at a local, we meet with the company seven times and either resolve the issue or take strike action as our union sees fit.

Eighteen of our grievances are now at Step 3 or beyond.

So tonight, I am announcing that in the coming days, we will be convening our Stellantis Council in Detroit.

We will also be holding strike authorization votes at one or more Stellantis locals.

We will stand united to enforce our contract and save American jobs. And we ask the American people to stand with us.

How has the company responded?

By CONTINUING to violate our 311 letter.

Last week, the company CONFIRMED that they are planning to violate our contract once again by moving production of the Dodge Durango from the Detroit Assembly Complex to Canada.

This will kill thousands of jobs here in America.

And it is a flagrant violation of our contract.

So yesterday, we began filing a new round of grievances over the Durango.

Because it’s clear this company will not stop at Belvidere.

They will not stop at the Durango.

They are determined to beat down the UAW and devastate the American working class.

We WILL NOT LET THEM.

We also filed federal labor charges at the NLRB against Stellantis for refusing to provide information around these violations.

That is ILLEGAL.

CEO Carlos Tavares and Stellantis management are out of control.

For weeks, we have been asking to meet with them. Tavares has failed to even sit down and discuss these issues with us.

Instead, the company is trying to intimidate and threaten our members out of what could happen if we go on strike.

They claim it would be against the law for us to enforce our contract.

They want you to be too scared to take action.

But we have an expert legal team that has crossed every “t” and dotted every “i.”

And we are fully within our rights to enforce this agreement to the fullest extent.

I have seen members concerned about the clause in our contract that says in case of a strike, the company can so-called “terminate” the contract.

But don’t be scared by that language. It just means that we enter a status quo period, where any changes must be negotiated, just like when we worked under an expired contract during our Stand Up Strike.

The company wants you to be scared, but we are 100 percent within our rights and within our power to take strike action if necessary.

Stellantis is also responding by trying to put out their own public relations spin.

Last week, Tavares almost broke his arm patting himself on the back for announcing $400 million in investment in three US plants.

The company put out a press release lauding this achievement.

When I look at that press release I don’t see an achievement. I see an insult.

That $400 million represents just TWO PERCENT of the total commitment this company made to us in our 2023 national agreement.

I look at that press release and I see NOTHING for Toledo Machining.

I look at that press release and see NOTHING about the EV battery commitment in Kokomo.

We are still waiting for the company to make good on the vast majority of its product commitments.

Not all of those are contract violations yet, but we are watching them closely and we are preparing to take action.

The vast majority of the American public supported us during our historic Stand Up Strike last year.

That’s because the working class all across this country is fed up with seeing corporations make out like bandits while our families fall further and further behind.

And I think it’s important for everyone who is paying attention, union or not, to know what is at stake in our fight with Stellantis.

The product commitment in our national agreement is not just a contract with Stellantis autoworkers.

It's a contract with the American people.

It is a contractual commitment to good jobs in this country.

And Stellantis—formerly Chrysler, an iconic American company—is violating its commitment to America.

Now at the bottom of our 311 letter, you’ll see this language.

It says these commitments are, I quote, “contingent upon plant performance, changes in market conditions, and consumer demand continuing to generate sustainable and profitable volumes.”

Now the company is making a lot of noise about “market conditions.”

But where were those “market conditions” when CEO Carlos Tavares gave himself a 56 percent raise, making him the highest paid auto executive outside Tesla?

Where were those market conditions when the company announced it was spending $3 billion this year alone on stock buybacks?

Where were those “market conditions” when GM and Ford posted strong sales and profits in the same market?

Where were those “market conditions” when Tavares said that “North American operations are basically funding the rest of Stellantis”?

If the market is the problem, how and why is the company announcing 20 new products for the North American market?

If the market is the problem, why is the company loading up product in Canada to produce for the U.S. market?

It isn’t market conditions forcing Stellantis to violate our agreement and move production of the Durango from Detroit to Windsor.

It isn’t “Market conditions” when your CEO is draining the company of all of its value to boost short-term profit margins, executive pay, and Wall Street giveaways.

And it isn’t plant performance when Belvidere Assembly has been idled for almost two years.

We aren’t the problem.

The market isn’t the problem.

Carlos Tavares is the problem.

And it isn’t just us saying it.

Stellantis is currently being sued by their own shareholders.

They are being sued by their suppliers.

They are facing national strike action from the UAW.

And even Stellantis dealers are sounding the alarm.

Last week, the Stellantis National Dealers Council spoke out against the destructive path Carlos Tavares is leading us all down.

They wrote an open letter, which I’d like to quote from now:

“We did not create this problem, the federal government did not create this problem, the UAW did not create this problem, and your employees did not create this problem – you [Carlos Tavares] created this problem.”

It’s not every day that we, the autoworkers are on the same side as the dealers.

The same side as the suppliers.

The same side as the shareholders.

But today is that day.

And we are prepared to take strike action to make Stellantis Keep The Promise.

We ask all Stellantis members to sign up for updates at UAW dot org slash Keep The Promise.

Because our country can’t take more devastation.

And there comes a time when enough is enough.

So here is the choice facing us today.

Either we allow an out-of-control CEO and his billionaire backers who have enjoyed years of record profits to close plant after plant and continue destroying our country.

OR we STAND UP.

We fight back.

We rally the American working class and take on corporate greed.

We take on plant closures.

We take on an economy that works for the benefit of the few and not the many.

Next week, I will be meeting with the Stellantis Council and we will be charting out our path forward.

But tonight, I want to be loud and clear.

Carlos, it is time to Keep the Promise.

Or we, the UAW, will keep it for you.

Thank you.