According to foreign media reports, Kevin Gotinsky, the head of Stellantis of the United Auto Workers (UAW), called on the company’s CEO Carlos Tavares to step down on August 23, and said he did not believe the company’s claim that the terms of the contract between the two sides allowed Stellantis to postpone the reopening of the assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois.
Gotinsky told reporters after a union rally at the Belvidere assembly plant: “I think he can either leave or find someone around him to run the company with him because I don’t think he knows what he’s doing.
” Gotinsky’s comments are exactly in line with UAW chairman Shawn Fain, who also attacked Tang in a video released on Aug.
16, Fain said: “now is the time to make a change, and the change should start at the top.
” Photo: Stellantis,UAW attacked Tang Weishi’s handling of recent layoffs and threatened to organise a strike against the company for failing to live up to its promise to reopen its idle plant in Belvidere by 2027.
Stellantis admitted to plans to postpone the reopening of the plant.
In a memo sent to employees by Stellantis, the company cited Article 311 of the contract that product investment and employment levels “depend on factory performance, changes in market conditions, and whether consumer demand can continue to generate sustainable and profitable production for all of these US manufacturing plants”.
In the memo, Stellantis told employees that the strike was illegal and that the company would “challenge this practice through all available legal means”.
But Gotinsky said on Aug.
23 that UAW did not agree with this statement.
“We have been holding meetings on these situations for several months, but they have never talked about the market situation,” he told reporters.
In some cases, we can obviously have a dialogue on changing investment, but the two sides have never discussed this issue.
If the situation is as bad as they say it is, how can you give yourself a raise? Our contract expires in May 2028, and they want to postpone it until the fourth quarter of 2028, so they want to get rid of the commitment completely.
” The union leaders who attended the rally also pointed out that Tang Wei initially said she would go to the Stirling Heights Assembly Plant (Sterling Heights Assembly Plant), but then did not show up.
Michael Spencer, chairman of UAW 1700, who represents the workers of the factory, said he had received an invitation to meet with Tang Weishi at the last minute, but he had not received a reply on the details as of the afternoon of August 23.
“We are assessing progress as planned,” a Stellantis spokesman said in a statement.
We thank the team (Stirling Heights Assembly Plant) for the significant progress they have made over the past few months.
On the evening of August 22nd, foreign media found Tang Weishi talking with John Elkann, chairman of Stellantis, in a restaurant on the outskirts of Detroit.
Gotinsky said that although tensions between the two sides are escalating, the two sides are still in dialogue.
“the communication is still ongoing,” he said.
They know exactly what we think, but unfortunately, the top leaders of the other side have other plans.
We will try to get him to do the right thing.
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