By Vince Bond Jr., Automotive News I  May 08, 2025 02:27 PM 

The UAW says its rocky relationship with Stellantis has improved tremendously since Carlos Tavares quit as CEO of the automaker five months ago.

Now the union is putting that goodwill to the test with the help of President Donald Trump’s import tariffs, pressing Stellantis’ interim leadership to raise output at several U.S. plants with excess capacity.

At a May 6 rally in Warren, union members made the case to North America COO Antonio Filosa that the company can easily create more jobs within its existing U.S. footprint to reduce its exposure to Trump’s 25 percent tariffs.

“It has been a 180-degree change,” UAW Vice President Kevin Gotinsky, the union’s top liaison with Stellantis, told Automotive News. “Tavares, we couldn’t reason with. He had a vision of pulling everything out of this country, we believe, as his actions seemed to show. I can tell you the new leadership — dealing with Antonio Filosa — has been a 180; it’s been a lot better dealing and working with him.”

Gotinsky pointed to Warren Truck Assembly Plant, which builds the Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer SUVs. The union has argued the plant can handle overflow Ram 1500 production instead of a factory the company is expanding in Mexico for that purpose.

The big Jeep SUVs share a platform with the Ram 1500, and Warren Truck assembled millions of the Dodge Dakota and previous-generation Ram pickups over nearly 40 years. The plant is expected to build only 46,000 vehicles this year, 90 percent below its 2017 peak, according to data obtained by Crain’s Detroit Business.

Stellantis has delayed the start of 1500 production in Saltillo, Mexico, originally from March to April and then again to late May as construction on the plant continues.

The UAW contends Stellantis shouldn’t need “overflow” production in Mexico when its primary Ram pickup plant in Sterling Heights isn’t at full capacity. Gotinsky said the company is “trying to establish a lower ceiling, and then saying that’s all overflow.”

He said Sterling Heights Assembly produced 191,000 Ram 1500s last year, 45 percent fewer than the 345,000 it built in 2019.

“To me, the ceiling is 345,000,” Gotinsky said. “We know we can build that. Anything beyond that we build south.”

Stellantis has indefinitely laid off more than 3,000 UAW-represented employees in recent years, Gotinsky said, and 1,000 to 1,500 more are temporarily off the job because the company is “idling plants weekly right now.”

A Stellantis spokesperson declined to comment on the UAW’s calls for more U.S. investment.

Multiple plants with extra capacity

Stellantis has multiple U.S. plants aside from Warren Truck with capacity to spare, Gotinsky said.

Trenton Engine Plant in Michigan built 931,000 engines in 2014 but only 230,000 in 2024, he said. The Toledo, Ohio, complex that builds the Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator was at 44 percent capacity last year, while a pair of Detroit plants that make the Dodge Durango and Jeep Grand Cherokee were operating at 68 percent capacity.

All of them have seen production cut by more than half relative to various points in the previous decade.

Gotinsky said the tariffs, which UAW President Shawn Fain has publicly supported despite campaigning against Trump in last year’s presidential election, could help get plants running where they need to be.

“Stellantis is in a unique situation. With all the excess capacity, they can bring things in a lot quicker,” Gotinsky said. “We don’t need to reconstruct a building from ground up.” It’s a matter of months, not years, he added.

Belvidere investment plans change

The revival of Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois was one of the top priorities in the UAW’s 2023 contract negotiations with Stellantis.

The site, which last built the Jeep Cherokee, was idled in February 2023 but got a new lease on life later that year when Stellantis said it would build a midsize pickup there. The deal was sweetened with plans for a $3.2 billion joint-venture battery facility and a large Mopar parts distribution hub nearby.

The midsize pickup launch will go ahead as planned in 2027, bringing back 1,500 jobs, but the Mopar and battery facilities are off the table, Gotinsky said. Stellantis briefly delayed the assembly plant reopening plan last year but reversed course in January.

Jeep bases future products in Mexico

Jeep, despite heavily marketing its decades of American heritage, is getting a big assist from Mexico for its latest product blitz. Gotinsky called that a “sickening” development.

The newly launched electric Wagoneer S is built in Mexico, where Stellantis also will make the upcoming electric Recon and a replacement for the Cherokee.

“We deserve to continue building product here,” Gotinsky said. “If we want to expand out because we’ve met our capacity here, I’m all for expanding out anywhere. But let’s make sure our buildings, our structures, our facilities here are at full capacity.”

By Vince Bond Jr., Automotive News

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