More than a dozen United Auto Workers members stood outside the Stellantis facility in Naperville Friday chanting “We’re on strike to make ’em do what’s right,” as passing cars honked to show support.
The workers — holding “UAW On Strike” signs — were also supported by picketers at the General Motors facility in Bolingbrook.
The two auto parts distribution sites in the Chicago suburbs went on strike after the president of the UAW expanded its action against major automakers by walking out of 38 General Motors and Stellantis, the successor to Fiat Chrysler, parts centers in 20 states, including Illinois.
Josie Hernandez, president of the local Stellantis union, said she’s proud to be demonstrating with her coworkers. She’s been working at Stellantis for 25 years, noting it has about 97 UAW members.
“We’re also here for the American worker,” Hernandez, 60, said. “We’re here for the middle class, to make sure that we still have a middle class, so that we can survive this inflation that we’re going through because that’s another issue that’s also facing us.”
The UAW’s dramatic expansion of its strike included the GM site, 1355 Remington Boulevard, and Stellantis’ location at 1980 High Grove Lane. The companies have said each location has about 100 workers.
Ford was spared additional strikes because the company met some of the union’s demands during negotiations over the past week, said UAW President Shawn Fain. As a result, Ford’s Chicago operations — an assembly plant on the South Side and a stamping plant in Chicago Heights — are not included in the new walkouts.
Lucas Pieruccini, 31, said workers made many concessions during the recession but never saw them return. Pieruccini, who lives in Rockford, has been working at Stellantis for four years.
“I got butterflies, you know, but it feels good right now to be out here with my brothers and sisters and just fighting for what we deserve,” he said.
During a Facebook Live event announcing the new strikes, Fain highlighted progress with Ford at the bargaining table. He said, “GM and Stellantis in particular are going to need some serious pushing.”
Fain said Ford has agreed to convert temporary employees to permanent status, re-establish cost-of-living raises that were suspended in 2009 and improve profit sharing.
In addition, Ford has agreed to a right to strike over plant closures. Fain said for employees on indefinite layoff, Ford has agreed to provide “income security for up to two years with health care.”
None of the concessions has been matched by GM or Stellantis, Fain said.
The UAW’s contract with the automakers expired at midnight on Sept. 14. The new walkouts will affect 5,600 workers on top of the nearly 13,000 who began strikes last week at three Ford, GM and Stellantis assembly plants. Those original strikes will continue, the union said.
Wheaton resident Lavelle Hopkins, 50, has worked at Stellantis for eight years. With a $23 hourly wage, he makes a dollar more than his 24-year-old daughter.
“I want to be able to live comfortably, take my family on trips and stuff like that,” he said. “With the wages that I make here, I cannot do anything like that.”
‘What we have to do’
GM said it has presented five “historic” offers covering wages and job security.
“Today’s strike escalation by the UAW’s top leadership is unnecessary,” the company said in a statement. “The UAW leadership is manipulating the bargaining process for their own personal agendas.”
Stellantis said it made “a very competitive offer” Thursday that would pay all current full-time hourly employees between $80,000 and $96,000 within four years and seven months and allow “workforce stability” during that time. The company said the UAW has not responded.
The union is pointing to the companies’ huge recent profits as it seeks wage increases of about 36% over four years, among other demands. The companies have offered a little over half that amount, and said they can’t afford to meet the union’s demands because if investments toward a costly transition from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles.
Patrick Lillard, 46, of Crest Hill, joined picketing workers at the GM site. He has worked at the parts center for 16 years.
“No one wants to go on strike but if this is the way to do it to get what we need, this is what we have to do,” Lillard said.
“This is a great company to work for but we all know the company went bankrupt in 2007 and since then we haven’t gotten anything back. We have made concession after concession and now that the company is making money and the bankruptcy is far behind us, it’s time to give us what we have up.”
Plainfield resident Steve Gregor, member of the executive board for GM’s local union, has been working there for about four years, previously spending 11 years at Chrysler. He said GM’s site has 86 union members.
“I made a little bit more per hour than I’m making currently 23 years ago,” Gregor, 52, said. “That is just mind blowing.”
He said as the cost of living has “skyrocketed” their wages haven’t kept up, adding they were frozen for eight years. GM’s starting hourly wage is $17, but Gregor said there’s an eight-year progression to reach the cap of $25.
“All these other warehouses are paying more than us to start,” Gregor said. “Our turnover rate’s been 75%. Some people come in here and they don’t even last a week. They decide this isn’t for them — not for $17 an hour. It’s just another job. It’s not a career.”
Gregor’s nephew, Donte, 19, who lives in Bolingbrook, has been working at GM for a year and is happy the union is making a stand.
“I know everybody trusts our president to make the right decisions, and I’m fairly certain that if we all stick this one through together, we’ll come out on top and the union will get what we deserve,” he said.
The carmakers and some of their suppliers have laid off about 6,000 workers in moves they say are related to the strike.
The impact is not yet being felt on car lots around the country — it will probably take a few weeks before the strike causes a significant shortage of new vehicles, according to analysts.
Contributing: AP
