DETROIT (AP) — Stellantis completes the closure of its Belvidere, Illinois, plant as it prepares for the costly transition from internal combustion cars to automobiles.
The plant, which now employs about 1,350 workers, officially went into “downtime” through the company on Tuesday. This term means that you intend to close the plant.
Most likely, Belvidere’s long-term will be a lightning rod in the upcoming national contract negotiations this summer with the United Auto Workers union, which may result in a painful strike.
On a Tuesday, the UAW said the plant’s downtime resolution will not go unanswered.
“This economic dislocation is a selection made through Stellantis for even greater profit,” union Vice President Rich Boyer said in a statement. “We will highlight their corporate greed to workers, the community, taxpayers and consumers. “
In a meeting with reporters on Tuesday, Carlos Tavares, chief executive of the corporate resulting from the merger of Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA Peugeot, said Stellantis was “looking for solutions” for Belvidere, which no longer has a new vehicle to build. The Jeep Cherokee SUV rolled off the factory assembly line on Tuesday.
The company, Tavares said, is undergoing a transformation toward electric cars, which are 40% more expensive to make than those equipped with internal combustion engines. Stellantis, he said, can’t pass on higher prices to consumers because many wouldn’t be capable of new cars. It also can’t sell electric cars at a loss, so it still has to absorb the extra prices.
“We have to adapt to this new world,” Tavares said. The transformation of the market is what we have to face. “
He said the company is not asking for express concessions from the Belvidere plant. “This is a global problem. It’s not Belvidere’s problem,” he said.
Stellantis, Tavares said, wants to optimize its production and distribution footprints. “If we don’t fix it, everyone will have problems,” he said.
But UAW President Ray Curry said the company’s “wrong decision” would disrupt lives, uproot families and have an effect on the regional portion supply chain network. Shawn Fain, his opponent in a soon-to-be-ending UAW leadership election, said the union has implemented clauses in his contract that save him from plant closures.
The union said it had negotiated, and Tavares said the company had agreed to retirement packages, as well as voluntary layoffs and pre-retirement leave for workers. It is also working on relocating interested workers, according to the UAW statement. Workers are affected.
The Belvidere plant may end up making Stellantis the leader of contract negotiations opening this summer with the three Detroit automakers.
Over the past two years, the UAW has become more competitive with employers as staff are scarcer. Went on strike against CNH Industrial, Deere.