Durbin Urges UAW And The Big Three To Negotiate In Good Faith To Reach An Agreement & Avoid A Strike

Press Release

"Since it was founded nearly 90 years ago, UAW has fought for--and won--victories that have helped to strengthen America's working families. UAW has won better pay for its members, safer working conditions, employer-funded pensions, health insurance, educational benefits--and more. UAW helped to allow autoworkers and their families to buy homes, take vacations, send their children to college, and retire with dignity.

But that legacy is in danger. Over the last 20 years, autoworkers have faced dozens of plant closures, lost jobs, wage cuts, and contract concessions. In 2009, UAW made major concessions in its contracts to help these same automakers receive government assistance. This included job security provisions, cost-of-living adjustments, and financing for retiree health care… [Since then,] automakers have reaped billions in profits. But these benefits have not been passed down to workers, and UAW members have seen their wages and standards of living suffer."

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"This was devastating, not just to the families and their workers, but to the community, and I hope Stellantis will reconsider its decision. Workers are fed up. Earlier this year, autoworkers struggled to breathe in factories across Illinois and other states, due to unprecedented wildfire smoke from Canada. Now they are saying in this negotiation: enough."

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"This agreement must be fair to workers, and include a restoration of the benefits that autoworkers sacrificed more than a decade ago to keep these families afloat. And Stellantis must reconsider the closure of the Belvidere Assembly Plant, and welcome back the workers it laid off in February."

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