{"id":1478775,"date":"2024-02-02T12:20:58","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T12:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2024\/02\/uaw-strike-belvidere-stellantis-plant-reopening\/"},"modified":"2024-02-02T12:22:09","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T12:22:09","slug":"the-fight-to-reopen-a-shuttered-stellantis-plant-is-just-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/02\/02\/the-fight-to-reopen-a-shuttered-stellantis-plant-is-just-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fight to Reopen a Shuttered Stellantis Plant Is Just Beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n  \n\n\n\n<h3>In their strike last fall, the United Auto Workers got Stellantis to agree to reopen its recently shuttered plant in Belvidere, Illinois. Now workers will have to make sure the company follows through on its commitments.<\/h3>\n<hr\/>\n\n<figure>\n  <img alt src=\"https:\/\/images.jacobinmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/02105828\/GettyImages-84094035-900x468.jpg\"\/>\n  <figcaption>\n    Stellantis's closure of its facility in Belvidere, Illinois, was devastating to the small town. (Jim Prisching \/ Getty Images)\n  <\/figcaption>   \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n  \n  <p>It\u2019s been almost five months since J. C. Bengtson, an autoworker for\u00a0twenty-four\u00a0years, lost his job.\u00a0\u200b\u201cI miss working,\u201d says the\u00a0fifty-five-year-old father of three daughters, all adults.\u00a0\u200b\u201cRight now I\u00a0am unemployed and waiting to hear\u00a0back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We are sitting in the union hall of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local\u00a01268, in Belvidere, Illinois, not far from the sprawling Belvidere Assembly Plant. Bengtson worked there for\u00a0ten\u00a0years before he was officially laid off in September\u00a02023, right before his union went on strike. The auto giant Stellantis announced in December\u00a02022\u00a0that it would permanently idle the facility that assembled the widely popular Jeep Cherokee, and by February\u00a02023, the majority of jobs at the plant had disappeared. In all, the company put\u00a01,350\u00a0people out of work, including Bengtson, who was part of a\u00a0later round of layoffs. (The total number of people impacted since cuts first started is far\u00a0greater.)<\/p>\n<p>The closure was devastating to Belvidere, a\u00a0small town of\u00a0twenty-five thousand\u00a0residents built around the Kishwaukee River in northern Illinois. Several restaurants and a\u00a0grocery store near the plant have already closed, and workers, many of whom had families in the local schools, had grown up in the town, or had moved there for their positions, found themselves out of work, and staring at the possibility of being uprooted. The company\u2019s willingness to walk away from a\u00a0plant, and a\u00a0town, where it had operated since\u00a01965\u00a0became a\u00a0symbol of corporate callousness during the UAW\u2019s fall\u00a02023\u00a0\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/workdaymagazine.org\/uaws-surprise-strike-strategy-kept-stellantis-in-the-dark-company-confirms\/\">stand-up strike<\/a>\u201d\u00a0against the Big Three automakers\u2009\u2014\u2009Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. It was a\u00a0source of outrage on picket lines and at\u00a0rallies.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pq pq--right\"><q>The company\u2019s willingness to walk away from a plant, and a town, where it had operated since 1965 became a symbol of corporate callousness.<\/q><\/aside>\n<p>But then something stunning happened. UAW\u2019s strike resulted in a\u00a02023\u00a0contract that says Stellantis must reopen the plant to produce midsize trucks by\u00a02027, though the language does not specify how many jobs will be created. And there\u2019s more: Stellantis also committed to locating a\u00a0parts distribution hub, as well as a\u00a0brand-new electric vehicle battery plant, in\u00a0Belvidere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe went from no future to a\u00a0future on steroids,\u201d Bengtson says.\u00a0\u200b\u201cMy hope is to get back in there. We are waiting on the company to have a\u00a0plan to bring us\u00a0back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The strike had brought a\u00a0closed auto plant roaring back to life, and then some. Or at least that\u2019s what the contract guarantees on\u00a0paper.<\/p>\n<p>Bengtson is soft-spoken and careful with his words, quick to break into a\u00a0smile. He has a\u00a0white beard speckled with gray and showed up to our interview wearing a\u00a0red UAW shirt. It seems everything in this union hall is stamped with the union\u2019s distinctive wheel logo, including the large wooden table in the conference room where we sit down to\u00a0talk.<\/p>\n<p>He tells me the same thing as the local\u2019s president, Matt Frantzen: We are pleased, but we will only believe it when we see the dirt being moved and the concrete being poured. The company is not being forthcoming about what exactly the plan is, they both say, and the air is one of cautious\u2009\u2014\u2009or outright uneasy\u2009\u2014\u2009hope.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s historic that an idle plant was brought back. Wow,\u201d Bengtson says.\u00a0\u200b\u201cNow the real work begins: getting them to follow\u00a0through.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_203326\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-203326\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-203326\" src=\"https:\/\/images.jacobinmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/02105512\/JC1-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-203326\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">J. C. Bengtson observes an image of the Belvidere plant. (Sarah Lazare)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>So far, Stellantis has called at least\u00a0165\u00a0employees back to work, and the company\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/media.stellantisnorthamerica.com\/newsrelease.do?id=25578&amp;mid=2\">says<\/a>\u00a0most of them are\u00a0\u200b\u201cprocessing parts for distribution to dealers at the warehouse located near the plant.\u201d (Frantzen says this number has now increased to\u00a0180.) Bengtson is a\u00a0millwright, a\u00a0skilled tradesman tasked with fixing mechanical equipment at numerous steps in the auto manufacturing process, from stamping and body to paint and assembly, as well as building maintenance.\u00a0\u200b\u201cI repair anything that moves,\u201d he explains, noting that he is eager to get back to\u00a0work.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, thanks to the\u00a02023\u00a0contract won in the strike, Bengtson gets health benefits and Supplemental Unemployment Benefit (SUB) pay amounting to around\u00a074% of his previous full-time\u00a0salary.<\/p>\n<p>According to Frantzen, around\u00a0815\u00a0members of the local are receiving SUB pay and are expected to get placed into jobs eventually, on top of the\u00a0180\u00a0he says are currently back to work in parts distribution. (Not all of the people impacted by the plant closure are receiving SUB pay, because some of them transferred, retired, or accepted a\u00a0buyout, but those who transferred are eligible for jobs in Belvidere once things get\u00a0going.)<\/p>\n<p>The dramatic turn of events in Belvidere was big news in the labor world\u2009\u2014\u2009and beyond.\u00a0\u200b\u201cHere\u2019s why the UAW saving this Illinois auto plant is a\u00a0\u200b\u2018gigantic deal,\u2019\u201d read a\u00a0November\u00a010 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2023\/11\/10\/business\/biden-fain-belvidere-plant-reopening\/index.html\">headline<\/a>\u00a0from CNN. The reopening was championed by both Illinois governor J. B. Pritzker and President Joe Biden, who visited Belvidere on November\u00a09.<\/p>\n<p>The narrative cut against an anti-union talking point commonly wielded by employers: If a\u00a0workforce unionizes and goes on strike, plants will be forced to\u00a0close.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact [that] you have an international leadership using leverage at the bargaining table to compel the employer to rescind a\u00a0plant closing decision is something we certainly have not seen in many decades, if not unprecedented,\u201d says Barry Eidlin, sociology professor at McGill University and an expert on labor and social\u00a0movements.<\/p>\n<p>The SUB pay, in particular, is promising, Eidlin says, because it\u00a0\u200b\u201cdramatically increases the likelihood that they are going to reopen. They are on the hook for paying these workers anyway. It keeps people attached to the company while mitigating many of the devastating economic and social impacts of the\u00a0closure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Under the UAW\u2019s new contract, workers have the right to strike the whole company over plant closures, as well as products and investments. So if the company does not invest what it committed, it could have another work stoppage on its\u00a0hands.<\/p>\n<p>According to Eidlin, there is a\u00a0need to guard against empty promises.\u00a0\u200b\u201cMany contracts have language about preventing plant closures and job security and promising new investments, and that\u2019s basically fluff. It\u2019s routinely violated. It\u2019s important to keep in mind whether or not this is just more empty promises or something qualitatively different. These workers clearly understand\u00a0that.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pq pq--left\"><q>\u2018Workers and their communities actually do have a say in how these investment decisions are made, because they are the ones that are making the profits.\u2019<\/q><\/aside>\n<p>When asked about concerns that the company is not being forthcoming about its reopening plan, Stellantis spokesperson Jodi Tinson says,\u00a0\u200b\u201cWe are tracking to those commitments outlined in the\u00a02023\u00a0contract and regularly review the status with the UAW. We will provide additional details about our plans at the appropriate\u00a0time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Bengtson, the SUB pay still amounts to a\u00a0significant pay cut, since he often worked more than\u00a0forty\u00a0hours a\u00a0week.\u00a0\u200b\u201cI want to make sure people understand we are not living high on the hog,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u200b\u201cThe intent is to maintain a\u00a0standard of living, pay for groceries, and help retain the\u00a0workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Frantzen says the Belvidere gains in the contract also come with possible downsides for workers in other locations. The parts distribution hub, slated to be in business in\u00a02024, will consolidate similar hubs in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Marysville, Michigan.\u00a0\u200b\u201cSome other locations may be closing down, and some of those individuals may be coming here to work at that parts depot,\u201d he says, sitting in his office, where a\u00a0poster shows the legendary labor activist and songwriter Joe Hill alongside Jack London\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/peopleshistoryarchive.org\/content\/scab\">definition of a\u00a0scab<\/a>.\u00a0\u200b\u201cThere will ultimately be more jobs, but these people are in the same boat we were in where they may have to\u00a0move.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pq pq--center\"><q>The idea is that, in any shift away from a fossil fuel economy, no worker should be left behind.<\/q><\/aside>\n<p>And then there is the issue of a\u00a0just transition. Under the leadership of UAW president Shawn Fain, who won the union\u2019s presidency as a\u00a0reform challenger in March\u00a02023, the union has pressed for jobs in green manufacturing, including electric vehicles, to be good union jobs, and for autoworkers who lose their jobs to be taken care of. The idea is that, in any shift away from a\u00a0fossil fuel economy, no worker should be left behind. Fain has not shied away from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/shawn-fain-united-auto-workers-president-face-the-nation-transcript-09-17-2023\/\">calling for<\/a>\u00a0a\u00a0just transition to ensure labor\u00a0\u200b\u201cwon\u2019t be left behind,\u201d using some of the same language that is embraced by climate activists seeking to mitigate the harms of climate change. This has provided an opening to build relationships between these\u00a0movements.<\/p>\n<p>Numerous climate activists\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/workdaymagazine.org\/stop-letting-auto-companies-pit-workers-against-the-environment\/\">rallied behind<\/a>\u00a0the striking workers last fall, and heralded just transition gains in the Big Three contracts, particularly at GM and Stellantis, where the companies agreed to include workers at electric vehicle plants where they have joint ventures with other companies to be included in the UAW master agreement. The companies had previously refused, based on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/workdaymagazine.org\/stop-letting-auto-companies-pit-workers-against-the-environment\/\">contested<\/a>\u00a0argument that joint ventures with foreign companies constitute separate legal\u00a0entities.<\/p>\n<p>In a\u00a0UAW summary of the deal, the union describes the contractual language stipulating a\u00a0new electric vehicle battery plant in Belvidere by\u00a02028\u00a0as part of\u00a0\u200b\u201cwinning a\u00a0just transition.\u201d The summary states,\u00a0\u200b\u201cEight months ago, Belvidere was flat on its back. The last worker had just walked out of our plant, and the company had no plans to reopen it. Now, not only will we have an assembly plant in Belvidere, we have won a\u00a0commitment from Stellantis to locate a\u00a0new battery plant\u00a0there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But this does not mean all UAW members are giddy about the shift to electric vehicles.\u00a0\u200b\u201cI\u2019m not sure\u00a0100 percent of the membership has bought into electric vehicles,\u201d Frantzen says.\u00a0\u200b\u201cBut if that is how we are getting help from the federal and state government, we\u2019ve gotta do what we\u2019ve gotta do.\u201d The Biden administration has given billions of dollars in subsidies to auto manufacturers for producing electric vehicles, and the state of Illinois also has an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ev.illinois.gov\/grow-your-business\/competitive-incentives.html\">incentives program<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about his view of a\u00a0just transition, Bengtson says the union has to adapt to changes in the industry, which means making sure that in any transition away from fossil fuels, labor standards are not driven\u00a0down.<\/p>\n<p>Both Bengtson and Frantzen consider themselves supporters of Fain.\u00a0\u200b\u201cNone of this would have taken place if the new administration had not gotten in,\u201d Frantzen says of the developments in\u00a0Belvidere.<\/p>\n<p>UAW\u2019s contract with Stellantis was ratified in November\u00a02023, with roughly\u00a068 percent voting\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2023\/11\/17\/uaw-stellantis-workers-ratify-new-contract.html#:~:text=United%20Auto%20Workers%20members%20at,targeted%20strikes%20by%20the%20UAW.\">in favor<\/a>. In Belvidere, those numbers were higher: Local\u00a01268\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wkow.com\/news\/top-stories\/belvidere-uaw-members-vote-to-ratify-stellantis-deal-reopen-factory\/article_af66afde-7f78-11ee-8ee1-0380d3c23125.html\">saw<\/a> an\u00a081 percent yes vote among production workers and an\u00a088 percent yes vote among skilled trades workers. Alongside the Belvidere provisions, the contract\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/labornotes.org\/2023\/11\/auto-workers-ratify-new-contracts-big-3\">increased<\/a>\u00a0starting wages around\u00a067 percent and top wages around\u00a033 percent, got back a\u00a0cost-of-living allowance, and increased contributions to\u00a0401(k)s. (While pensions were not restored for everyone, they were improved for those hired before\u00a02007.) The contract, which represents\u00a0twenty-six thousand\u00a0workers, also made strides toward reducing wage tiers, though they were not\u00a0eliminated.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Bengtson has trust issues with the company, which are informed by his experience at General Motors earlier in his career. That was when he was laid off from the Janesville Assembly Plant in Wisconsin when it largely idled in\u00a02008.\u00a0\u200b\u201cThey left that factory standing for years, and it gave people a\u00a0lot of false hope in that community,\u201d he\u00a0says.<\/p>\n<p>Eidlin, the sociology professor, says that, in the case of Belvidere, the latest contract\u00a0\u200b\u201cchallenges the idea that investment decisions are purely a\u00a0matter of management prerogative. Workers and their communities actually do have a\u00a0say in how these investment decisions are made, because they are the ones that are making the profits. We can\u2019t and shouldn\u2019t just leave all the fundamental decisions about how resources are allocated in society to\u00a0employers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While out of work, Bengtson, who lives in Belvidere Township, has been volunteering once a\u00a0month with his wife at the union hall to deliver food to community members in need, in partnership with a\u00a0local food bank. And during the stand-up strike, he traveled to Naperville, Ill., to walk the picket lines. There he witnessed how autoworkers are being uprooted to stay in their field.\u00a0\u200b\u201cThe strike captain there was still living in Roscoe,\u201d he says, referring to a\u00a0village about\u00a090\u00a0miles away from Naperville.\u00a0\u200b\u201cHe had to commute one and a\u00a0half hours to\u00a0work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For now, workers like Bengtson who are still out of work are stuck in a\u00a0state of limbo.\u00a0\u200b\u201cPeople were excited about the agreement,\u201d says Frantzen.\u00a0\u200b\u201cWe went from not knowing what the future will be to realizing we will stay\u00a0here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis kind of extension is unprecedented,\u201d he adds.\u00a0\u200b\u201cNow we are waiting on calls from the corporation. Is there work coming? How many more do you need this\u00a0week?\u201d<\/p>\n\n  \n\n    \n           \n    \n\n   \n  <hr\/>\n  <p>This article was originally published jointly by\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/inthesetimes.com\/article\/uaw-strike-stellantis-plant-fight\">In These Times<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/workdaymagazine.org\/the-uaw-strike-saved-their-shuttered-plant-but-the-fight-is-just-beginning\/\"><em>Workday\u00a0<\/em>magazine<\/a>, and\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/labornotes.org\/2024\/01\/uaw-strike-saved-shuttered-plant-now-comes-enforcement\">Labor Notes<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2024\/02\/uaw-strike-belvidere-stellantis-plant-reopening\/\">Jacobin<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been almost five months since J. C. Bengtson, an autoworker for\u00a0twenty-four\u00a0years, lost his job.\u00a0\u200b\u201cI miss working,\u201d says the\u00a0fifty-five-year-old father of three daughters, all adults.\u00a0\u200b\u201cRight now I\u00a0am unemployed and waiting to hear\u00a0back.\u201d We are sitting in the union hall of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local\u00a01268, in Belvidere, Illinois, not far from the sprawling Belvidere Assembly [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1478775"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1478775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1478775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1478776,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1478775\/revisions\/1478776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1478775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1478775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1478775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}