Stellantis and the United Auto Workers have reached a tentative agreement that, if approved, will bring pay raises, improved benefits and most importantly for Illinois, a new vehicle and an EV battery plant to Belvidere.
The tentative agreement, announced Saturday by the UAW, includes a 25% increase in base wages, cost of living adjustments and the right to strike over plant closures, mirroring a similar deal struck by Ford on Wednesday. But the Stellantis agreement also would restart the 60-year-old Belvidere Assembly Plant, which has been idled since February.
As part of the deal, the Belvidere plant will get both an unnamed vehicle and an adjacent battery manufacturing facility, bringing thousands of jobs back to the small river city near Rockford. The state recently optioned a large parcel of land next to the 280-acre Belvidere plant to accommodate manufacturing expansion.
“Through the power of our Stand Up Strike, we have saved Belvidere,” UAW Vice President Rich Boyer said in a news release. “Stellantis is reopening the plant and the company will also be adding over a thousand jobs at a new battery plant in Belvidere.”
Sources said the Belvidere plant may become home to a light truck, a battery plant and a parts distribution center. The new vehicle to be built at Belvidere would likely be electric, sources said.
Stellantis did not comment on the specifics of the Belvidere agreement.
“I look forward to finalizing the state’s economic package and not only reopening the shuttered assembly plant in Belvidere to manufacture electric vehicles, but also co-locating a new battery production facility,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a news release. “This will be thousands of jobs, billions in investment, and a huge win for Illinois.”
In February, Stellantis “indefinitely” idled the assembly plant and laid off its last 1,200 workers after halting production of the Jeep Cherokee amid dwindling sales. Since then, the fate of the plant has been a source of industry speculation and a focus for legislators seeking to either convince Stellantis to reopen it or find someone else to move in.
The plant’s future became a pivotal negotiating point during the six-week UAW strike, with everything from a “megahub” parts distribution center to a battery plant on the table. The agreement seems to incorporate all of the above, an outcome that was met with enthusiasm in Belvidere.
“We go from pretty much dead in the water to potentially one of the biggest locals in the corporation,” said Matt Frantzen, head of UAW Local 1268 at the idled Stellantis plant in Belvidere. “It’s going to be pretty exciting for the Belvidere, Boone County area.”
For nearly six decades, the massive auto plant has been the economic engine of Belvidere, churning out everything from the Plymouth Fury and the Chrysler New Yorker to the Dodge Dart.
The Belvidere plant became the exclusive home for the Jeep Cherokee in 2017. The region’s largest employer at its zenith, the plant had 5,464 workers on three shifts at the start of 2019, after building 270,000 of the SUVs during the previous year. The third shift was eliminated in 2019, downsizing 1,400 workers out of their jobs.
The state put together a number of incentive packages to get Stellantis to bring some form of EV production to the idled plant. The Invest in Illinois Act created a $400 million “closing fund” to incentivize EV manufacturers and other businesses to locate, expand or remain in the state through favorable financing. The 2021 Reimagining Electric Vehicles in Illinois Act was bolstered in December, upping the incentive to 75% of state income tax for automakers that retain employees as they transition to EV production.
U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, a Democrat whose 11th Congressional District includes Belvidere, said getting Stellantis to restart the assembly plant has been “all hands on deck effort” at every level of government.
“It’s been the heart and soul of Belvidere for generations and when the plant was idled earlier this year, it sort of felt like something big was missing,” Foster said Saturday. “Since the start of the year … this was job one, to do everything we can to provide a future.”
The UAW, which represents 146,000 members across the U.S., is seeking a new four-year labor agreement with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. Demands include pay increases, shorter workweeks and improvements to retiree pensions and health care plans amid record profits for the Big Three automakers.
When the previous contract expired on Sept. 15, the UAW launched a strike against all three automakers for the first time in the Detroit-based union’s 88-year history. The strike expanded to nearly 45,000 UAW members at eight assembly plants and 38 parts distribution centers in 22 states.
After nearly six weeks of striking, the UAW reached a tentative agreement with Ford Wednesday. The automaker said nearly 20,000 employees will return to their jobs in the coming days while the agreement goes through the ratification process, including 4,613 autoworkers at the Chicago Assembly Plant on the city’s Southeast Side.
With the tentative agreement Saturday, thousands of Stellantis workers will also get the call to return, the automaker said Saturday.
“We look forward to welcoming our 43,000 employees back to work and resuming operations to serve our customers and execute our Dare Forward 2030 strategic plan to maintain Stellantis’ position at the forefront of innovation,” Mark Stewart, North American COO of Stellantis, said in a statement.
The strike continues against GM, the UAW said Saturday.