DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – Stellantis workers who were previously employed by the automaker, protested over the weekend outside the United Auto Workers (UAW) Solidarity House in Detroit after several hundred were let go.
“Shawn Fain lied to us, and as a result, Stellantis fired us,” Ashley Wilmoth said according to ClickonDetroit.
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Wilmoth is among the 539 supplemental, also called temporary, Stellantis employees laid off in Detroit in the new year.
“We were all paying union dues and we are not receiving any form of representation from our union apparatus,” Wilmoth said according to ClickonDetroit.
What’s in the contract?
While United Auto Workers (UAW) contracts helped convert 2,800 temporary employees to full time workers, roughly 1,800 temporary employees have been released from work.
The UAW has not yet responded to the protest via social media or a written statement.
Fain responded to the release of temporary employees.
After workers were laid off in January, UAW Shawn Fain took to Facebook Live to share that the UAW was still fighting for the temporary workers.
“[These companies] are bringing the pain to the lowest paid workers, and blaming the union,” Fain said. “Stellantis can afford to do the right thing here and provide a pathway to fulltime good auto jobs, but again they’re choosing to line executive and shareholder pockets.”
“We’re going to keep fighting for our supplemental employees,” pledged Fain.
UAW expands strike efforts to encompass non-union members.
In late February, the UAW announced that it would be expanding its strike efforts and committed $40 million through 2026 to help provide organizing funds for non-union auto workers and battery workers, especially those in the South.
“In the next few years, the electric vehicle battery industry is slated to add tens of thousands of jobs across the country, and new standards are being set as the industry comes online,” the UAW said in a statement. “These jobs will supplement, and in some cases largely replace, existing powertrain jobs in the auto industry. Through a massive new organizing effort, workers will fight to maintain and raise the standard in the emerging battery industry.”
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