Today, the UAW released a powerful new video calling out Stellantis for failing to honor its commitments to UAW members and criticizing CEO Carlos Tavares for mismanaging the company. The release coincides with a one-day general strike by Italian unions to protest Stellantis’ significant production cuts and the broader impact on metalworkers across Italy.
The video can be accessed here and the media is invited to use the footage.
UAW members from Belvidere, Illinois, including UAW Region 4 Director Brandon Campbell and UAW Local 1268 President Matt Frantzen, joined the strike and spoke to the hundreds of thousands gathered to protest Stellantis’ baldfaced corporate greed. UAW members secured a commitment to reopen the idled Belvidere plant in their 2023 contract, but the company has not fulfilled its promise.
Pictures from the general strike in Rome can be accessed here and the media is invited to use the images.
The UAW’s new video highlights Stellantis’ refusal to follow through on the $19 billion in product and investment commitments made during the 2023 Stand Up Strike. These promises include reopening the Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois—a crucial agreement that Stellantis is now trying to backtrack on. In the video, UAW President Shawn Fain directly addresses Stellantis members , urging them to stand up and fight for their jobs and futures by going to ShitcanCarlos.com to sign a strike authorization pledge.
“This is about your job, your life, and the question is, are you going to let Carlos Tavares tell you to sit down and shut up?” Fain asks in the video. “Or are you going to stand up and fight for what’s right, for what you deserve?”
As Stellantis has filed frivolous lawsuits and robocalled members in a desperate effort to block the union’s actions, three UAW locals have already passed strike authorization votes, with more locals preparing to follow. The union’s grievance process, initiated due to Stellantis’ failure to reopen Belvidere and invest in future production, is moving forward. If grievances remain unresolved, a strike at one or more Stellantis facilities could begin within weeks.
The UAW video serves as a call to action for members and allies, clearly stating that the union will not back down in its fight to hold Stellantis accountable.
For more information, visit ShitcanCarlos.com, where viewers can learn about the campaign to “Keep The Promise” and find the latest updates on the fight against Stellantis’ mismanagement.
The full transcript of President Fain’s narration is below:
UAW family, as you may have heard, Stellantis has filed more than a dozen frivolous lawsuits against our Union. This is an act of desperation, plain and simple.
Two weeks ago, nearly 200 leaders from UAW locals across the country came to Detroit to discuss the situation at Stellantis.
At the meeting, we reviewed the clear evidence that CEO Carlos Tavares and Stellantis are seriously violating the product commitments in our national agreement. Stellantis has not kept its commitment in Belvedere and has unallocated the Dodge Durango from the Jefferson North Assembly Plant.
For years, this company has picked us off, plant by plant, and our leadership lacked the will and the means to fight back. The Stellantis Council unanimously decided that those days are over. All 200 UAW leaders unanimously recommended to the membership that every UAW worker at Stellantis prepare for a fight and that we all get ready to vote yes to authorize a strike at Stellantis.
Now in response, Stellantis is trying to use the federal courts to stop our campaign to get this company to keep the promises they made to American auto workers in our 2023 contract.
Stellantis management has launched a campaign of intimidation and harassment against our members, our local unions, and the International UAW to try to get us to back down from the fight to save our jobs.
I have bad news for Stellantis: we’re not going anywhere.
Their corporate lawyers are claiming that our fight to keep jobs in Belvedere, Detroit, and America is based on what they call “sham grievances.”
But here’s the real sham: over the past nine weeks, Stellantis has spent over a billion dollars on stock buybacks, all while saying they can’t afford to keep their commitments to their own employees. In fact, Stellantis has spent $3 billion on stock buybacks this year alone.
Our proposal would cost a fraction of what Carlos Tavares has pissed away on Wall Street to save his stock price, which is down 55% since March.
The real sham is this campaign of intimidation and interference in our Union’s business.
Stellantis managers are calling members, threatening their jobs. They’re emailing our local presidents threatening lawsuits.
This is what happens when a CEO is cornered and isolated. His dealers in America and Europe are turning against him. His suppliers and shareholders are suing him, and he’s pushing our customers away.
And the sham is that he will walk away with a golden parachute of millions and millions of dollars, while American autoworkers are left holding the bag.
The sham took place this week when he was asked about stepping down or being replaced. Carlos Tavares said, and I quote, “I signed a contract.”
Well, Carlos, the workers at Stellantis signed a contract too, and it’s time for you to honor it.
Our fight is about honoring a contract that Carlos Tavares signed. Our fight is about tens of thousands of American auto worker jobs, our families, and our communities.
This is about your job, your life, and the question is, are you going to let Carlos Tavares tell you to sit down and shut up? Or are you going to stand up and fight for what’s right, for what you deserve?
These aren’t sham grievances. These are our lives. Carlos Tavares is a sham CEO with a sham strategy to drive this company into the ground.
We will once again save this company from mismanagement, from corporate greed, and from killing tens of thousands of good jobs, but only if we stick together. Only if we stand up.
So, are you in? If you are, sign your strike authorization pledge today. And you can do that by going to shitcancarlos.com.
Let me repeat that: you can sign a strike authorization pledge by going to shitcancarlos.com.
Let the company know where you stand. And together, let’s tell Stellantis, the days of plant closures are over, and Carlos Tavares needs to go.
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