UAW president trashes Stellantis contract proposal as 'insult' to members

UAW President Shawn Fain on Tuesday criticized early bargaining proposals from Stellantis as a "slap in the face" to members before throwing a copy of the document in a trash can during a livestream on Facebook.

Fain, who last week detailed the union's "audacious and ambitious" economic demands, including more than 40 percent raises, said the response from Stellantis doesn't address the union's concerns. The two sides started bargaining last month on contracts that expire Sept. 14.

The company, Fain said, is seeking cuts to medical coverage, threatening profit-sharing payouts, refusing to reopen the idled Belvidere Assembly Plant and insisting on keeping a two-tier wage system.

Fain said Stellantis also wants to eliminate a cap on the use of temporary workers, make members work longer before receiving their full allotment of paid vacation time, increase absenteeism penalties and gain the ability to "demand further concessions during the life of the contract" without a membership vote.

"The contract currently being proposed by Stellantis would deepen the divisions in our workplace, not eliminate them," Fain said on the livestream. "Stellantis' proposals are a slap in the face; they're an insult to our members' hard work over the last four years."

Fain held up a pamphlet titled "Company Proposals 2023 UAW National Negotiations" and read directly from it at times before tossing it in the garbage.

"Everything they're looking for in this document is about concessions," he said. "I'm going to file it in its proper place. That's where it belongs, the trash, because that's what it is."

A spokesperson for Stellantis did not immediately respond to Fain's comments.

But according to a copy of the Stellantis proposal obtained by Automotive News, the company said that it lost 16,706 units of production due to absenteeism in 2021 and 2022, which cost it $217 million. In 2022, it had an absenteeism rate of 23 percent, the document said.

Stellantis’s proposals include creating a no-fault, points-based attendance system and modify its discipline process, the document said.

Regarding health care, Stellantis said its costs are expected to increase by $613 million over the next four years and exceed $1.1 billion by 2027, according to the document. It is proposing an employee cost-share through premiums deductibles, co-pays and out-of-pocket maximums on its medical and prescription plans, but it did not specify what percentage of costs it wants them to pay.

Singled out

While Fain has said the union plans to negotiate with all three companies at once, he's singled out Stellantis on a number of occasions.

After ditching the traditional handshake ceremonies to kick off bargaining, Fain blasted Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares for not attending a private meeting between union and company leaders that took place days later.

He also admonished Mark Stewart, the company's North American COO, for allegedly arriving late, saying it was ironic the company is so concerned about absenteeism.