United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain greets workers at the Stellantis Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, to mark the beginning of contract negotiations in Sterling Heights, Michigan, U.S. July 12, 2023.
Rebecca Cook | Reuters
DETROIT – The United Auto Workers union is expanding its strike to a Stellantis plant in Michigan that produces Ram 1500 full-size pickup trucks.
The work stoppage includes roughly 6,800 workers at Stellantis’ Sterling Heights Assembly Plant in suburban Detroit, the union publicly announced Monday morning after initiating the walkout.
“Currently, Stellantis has the worst proposal on the table regarding wage progression, temporary worker pay and conversion to full-time, cost-of-living adjustments (COLA), and more,” UAW said in a release.
The plant is one of the most important U.S. plants to Stellantis, however the automaker is better poised to wait out a work stoppage at the truck plant than its crosstown rivals General Motors and Ford Motor, with a healthier supply of Ram pickups ready to go.
The unannounced walkout at SHAP brings the total number of UAW members on strike with the Detroit automakers to more than 40,000. The targeted strikes began more than five weeks ago on Sept. 15 after the union and Detroit automakers failed to reach new agreements.
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