After struggling to build momentum for factory walkouts this fall, the United Auto Workers is telling its Stellantis NV members that it now plans to organize strike authorization votes in early 2025.

The union wants to force Stellantis to follow through with investment pledges made in its 2023 contract. But those organizing efforts have been hampered by Stellantis production cutbacks and layoffs, and the carmaker’s warnings that such a mid-contract work stoppage isn’t allowed.

It remains unclear how Sunday's resignation of CEO Carlos Tavares might affect relations between the two sides given that union leaders have repeatedly called for his firing in recent months — even starting a website showing Tavares in a garbage can. UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement that Tavares' departure was welcome news, but that the union planned to keep pressuring the company to uphold commitments it made in the 2023 contract.

"We are looking forward to sitting down with the new CEO, backed up by thousands of UAW Stellantis members ready to take action, and discussing their plan to keep making world-class vehicles here in the United States," Fain said.

In the weeks leading up to Tavares’ departure, UAW leaders had been reassuring members in several packed meetings and a video address that they have no plans to call for work stoppages during the holidays. But they said January could be ideal timing to again ramp up the Stellantis pressure campaign — just as the carmaker starts to recover from recent U.S. inventory woes and as it releases more 2025 vehicles.

"Inventories going down means we have more leverage to enforce this contract," said Kevin Gotinsky, who oversees the UAW’s Stellantis department, in a recent video address to workers. The automaker has made progress slashing U.S. dealer inventory levels this fall by offering better incentives to customers and pausing production at some plants.

Gotinsky added that the union’s goal is to avoid a strike, but “we need leverage to hold this company to its promises. We get this leverage by being able to shut this company down. Nobody else is going to save us.”

The UAW started its “Keep the Promise” campaign against Stellantis over the summer, filing grievances over the company’s delays reopening a shuttered assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois, and concerns that the automaker was set to move production of the Dodge Durango SUV from Detroit to Windsor, Ontario.

The union warned that the grievances, if unresolved, could lead to strikes as soon as the fall. UAW leaders held rallies with members at several Stellantis locals, asked workers to sign strike authorization cards, and sharpened their rhetoric against Tavares, even starting the website sh**cancarlos.com, which said the executive was “out of control.”

But the union’s campaign appeared to lose momentum amid thousands of recent layoffs, plant production pauses, and widespread worker fears about more job cuts or plant closures. The automaker also aggressively fought back, filing multiple federal lawsuits alleging strikes would be illegal, sending robocalls to workers urging them not to support a strike, and issuing statements that collectively have fueled questions among members and some local union leaders about whether walkouts would be a wise idea.

A Stellantis spokesperson, Jodi Tinson, said the company has continued to communicate with the union "daily as a normal course of business," but didn't have anything else to add about the nature of the talks.

In late October, facing grievance-related deadlines of whether to push forward with plant strikes or not, the union opted to pull back temporarily and it withdrew many of its grievances. But Gotinsky said at the time it would still have about three months to reinstate the grievances over Belvidere and the Durango, which could allow the union to start progressing toward strikes again as late as early 2025.

Still, it appears securing approvals for strikes could be a challenge at some plants that have been battered by job cuts and uncertain work schedules for several months.

To make their case and answer member questions, Fain, Gotinsky, and other UAW officials have made the rounds to key locals in recent weeks, including those representing workers at Sterling Heights (Michigan) Assembly Plant, the Toledo (Ohio) Assembly Complex, and the Detroit Assembly Complex-Jefferson.

"We’ve been clear that the UAW’s top priority is fighting against the tired corporate playbook of shipping jobs out of this country driving a race to the bottom," Fain said in a statement to The Detroit News prior to Tavares' resignation.

"Seeing the CEO’s gross mismanagement at Stellantis and spending time meeting our members in Toledo, Detroit, and Sterling Heights, it’s more apparent than ever that we need to double down on that focus. No matter who is in power in government, our mission remains the same," he added. "If this administration is willing to address issues like bad trade deals and the right to form a union, then we can work with them."

Each of the locals Fain and Gotinsky visited recently has unique concerns, but all are facing job cuts and at least some uncertainty about their plants' futures.

At Local 7, which represents Detroit's Jefferson plant, more than 280 workers have been indefinitely laid off this fall and union leaders previously expressed concern that one of the two vehicles it produces, the Durango, could be moved to Canada in the future.

William Earley was among those laid off from the plant last month and attended the meeting which ran more than four hours. The Detroit resident said he wants to see Fain and Gotinsky fight aggressively for laid-off workers like him, but he's also unsure whether a mid-contract strike is the best strategy.

"At this point, people are afraid to commit to a strike," said the 30-year-old, pointing to language in the 2023 contract. "I realize that's the most powerful tool that we have. But the people need to see proof that, 'Hey this is OK to do.' Because we could very much damage the UAW if we go out on a strike and it's determined to be illegal."

At the Toledo Assembly Complex, which builds the Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator, workers are bracing for 1,100 indefinite job cuts early next year, and have also faced temporary layoffs off-and-on for months. A pair of meetings at Local 12 in Toledo "went much better than I thought it would," said worker Stephen Hinojosa, who had encouraged his colleagues to attend and has been advocating for the union's Keep the Promise campaign. There was some yelling and sharp disagreements, but Hinojosa said it seemed many of his fellow workers came away with a more open mind on supporting a strike.

But he added there was still plenty of understandable skepticism: "A lot of people are worried about their jobs, and they're worried if we go on strike now, it could result in the end of all of our jobs," Hinojosa said.

Local 1700, which represents workers at Sterling Heights, where the Ram 1500 pickup is built, also has its own set of worries, from recent layoffs to concerns about slowing production line speed and what it might mean for future cuts, as well as the company's plan to move excess truck production to a plant in Mexico. Local 1700 President Michael Spencer last month urged his members to brace for "a hard decision where we may have to take a strike vote" — but added that moment hadn't arrived yet.

Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, said it's possible that Tavares' departure does help mend relations between the company and union before the current dispute escalates further.

"It does allow more productive conversations, but does Shawn Fain actually want them?" Wheaton said. "His style has been more conflict-oriented. But I do know he wants results — so with a new person (as CEO), they'll at least have a chance to have new negotiatons, and see if they can put those (contract) promises put in place."

The UAW late Monday said there had already been some encouraging progress with Tavares out of the picture, noting it had finalized an agreement for more than 1,000 new UAW jobs at a Stellantis-Samsung SDI joint-venture battery plant in Indiana.

"We won this (employee) leasing agreement in our 2023 contract negotiations, but under the failed leadership of Carlos Tavares, the company delayed making good on their commitment to workers in Kokomo," Fain said in a statement. "This pattern of going back on agreements and violating our contract was part of what led us to call for Tavares’s resignation."

He added the union looked forward to "continuing this progress" with new Stellantis leadership that "respects hardworking UAW members."

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