UAW President Shawn Fain and Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares agree on at least one thing: The auto giant has a hard time getting some U.S. factory workers to show up for their shifts.
They just don’t align on how to solve it.
Stellantis has made fixing absenteeism a priority in contract talks with the UAW for its 43,000 unionized workers. The absentee rate at its U.S. plants was 23 percent last year, according to a copy of the company’s initial contract proposal reviewed by Bloomberg. Absent workers led to $217 million in lost sales in 2021 and 2022, the company estimated.
Running plants more efficiently could allow Stellantis to be more generous at the bargaining table — and that could help the U.S. economy dodge a potential multibillion dollar hit from a strike. The current UAW contract expires on Thursday. To reach a deal, the automaker and the union will need to resolve how to plug the gap when employees fail to punch in.