MILWAUKEE — About 100 UAW-represented Stellantis jobs in Milwaukee will be transferred to Illinois, according to TMJ4 News partners at the Milwaukee Business Journal.
The BizJournal reports that's due to the new contract between the UAW and the manufacturer of Jeep, Chrysler and Ram vehicles.
The Stellantis facility in Milwaukee will be closed.
The people who worked there are now eligible to transfer to jobs at a Stellantis facility in Belvidere, Illinois, on the way between Chicago and Milwaukee.
A new mega-hub parts distribution center in Belvidere, Illinois replaces facilities in Milwaukee, Chicago and Marysville, Michigan, according to the UAW contract.
UAW Local 75 told TMJ4 News: "We are waiting to disperse the full information to the membership, Sunday at 1 pm... As far as other reports that the Milwaukee Depot is closing, at this point, we are identified as consolidating and possibly closing at some point over the contract, with our work going to a yet-to-be-built Mopar mega-center, in Belvidere, IL. Definitive dates or any sort of specific plans have not been established by the company. Unfortunately, Milwaukee has heard this before. In the meantime, Local 75 members will continue to push forward, with business as usual."
UAW and Stellantis reach tentative contract deal
The Associated Press previously reported on Oct. 28, 2023 that Jeep maker Stellantis reached a tentative contract agreement with the United Auto Workers union.
The Stellantis deal mirrors one reached earlier with Ford. The union says the Stellantis contract also saves jobs at a factory in Belvidere, Illinois, that Stellantis had planned to close, according to the AP.
About 14,000 UAW workers who were on strike at two Stellantis assembly plants in Michigan and Ohio, and several parts distribution centers across the country, were told to drop their picket signs and return to work. So the agreement will end a six-week strike at the maker of Jeep and Ram vehicles.
The pact includes 25% in general wage increases over the next 4 1/2 years for top assembly plant workers, with 11% coming once the deal is ratified. Workers also will get cost-of-living pay that would bring the raises to a compounded 33%, with top assembly plant workers making more than $42 per hour. At Stellantis, top-scale workers now make around $31 per hour.
Like the Ford contract, the Stellantis deal would run through April 30, 2028.
According to the AP, under the deal, the union said it saved jobs in Belvidere as well at an engine plant in Trenton, Michigan, and a machining factory in Toledo, Ohio.
“We’ve done the impossible. We have moved mountains. We have reopened an assembly plant that was closed,” UAW President Shawn Fain said.
The deal includes a commitment by Stellantis to build a new midsize truck at its factory in Belvidere, Illinois, that was slated to be closed. About 1,200 workers will be hired back, plus another 1,000 workers will be added for a new electric vehicle battery plant, the union said.
Milwaukee Workers react
Workers leaving the Stellantis facility in Bay View on Friday had mixed feelings about the new contract struck between the union and the company.
When asked if he would vote in favor of the deal Grady Angeloff said, "Definitely no."
Angeloff said he didn't have to uproot his family and was disappointed this was the outcome of the UAW strike.
"I wanted to keep my family here. I wanted to keep generations here because this is where we started and this is where I wanted to finish," Angeloff said.
His coworker, Paul Compton, is on the other side.
"I'm definitely going to vote yes for that contract," Compton said. "I came here from Belvidere. I was in Kenosha, went to Belvidere, came here."
For Debbie Torre, it's like leaving her second home behind.
"I've lived here my whole life. The plant, my parents retired from here. I was kind of hoping I was going to retire from here. It's very heartbreaking," Torre said.
Despite not wanting to see the facility close, Torre said she'll work at the Belvidere facility if that's what it comes to.
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