“The UAW acted in bad faith by disregarding this language, filing sham grievances and calling a strike authorization vote to pressure Stellantis to proceed with planned investments,” the company said in its lawsuit.
Stellantis, the parent company of automobile manufacturer Chrysler, has filed a lawsuit against United Auto Workers, claiming that the union violated the terms of its contract by threatening to strike over investment delays.
According to The Guardian, Stellantis filed its complaint in a California-based federal court earlier this week. In filings, attorneys for Stellantis say that the UAW and its Los Angeles chapter should be held liable for revenue loss and any other damages arising from a potential strike.
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain has levied his own counterclaims against Stellantis, saying that the company reneged on its contract when it tried to pull out of a series of planned investments.
But Stellantis alleges that any investments it makes are subject to market conditions—and that the electric vehicle capabilities it had planned to put money toward are no longer as viable as they once were.
“The UAW acted in bad faith by disregarding this language, filing sham grievances and calling a strike authorization vote to pressure Stellantis to proceed with planned investments,” the company said in its lawsuit.
The Detroit News notes that Tobin Williams, the head of Stellantis’s human resources division in North America, sent an explanatory email to U.S.-based employees on Friday. In his email, Willaims said that Stellantis is not canceling all of its planned electric vehicle investments but is instead delaying them due to prevailing market conditions.
“We knew that slowing consumer EV adoption could potentially delay our product launches and investment decisions,” Williams wrote. “In fact, many of our competitors know this too, and also have announced investment and product delays as outright product cancellations.”
“This is information that the company has repeatedly shared with the UAW and that they have acknowledged,” he said. “The evidence of a dramatic transformation in the industry and its effects on the market is clear.”
But Fain and other UAW leaders have said that, if they give Stellantis any leeway on its electric vehicle commitments, it could lead to more and more money being stripped away from other planned investments.
“Stellantis made a contractual promise to invest in America and we are not going to let them weasel out of it,” Fain said on Friday. “Our members won those investments during the Stand Up strike, and we will strike again to make Stellantis keep the promise if we have to.”
Sources
Chrysler owner Stellantis files federal lawsuit against UAW over strike threats
Stellantis files federal lawsuit against UAW after local strike vote, with more planned
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