Stellantis and the striking United Auto Workers union have reached a tentative agreement identical to the one agreed earlier this week with Ford, the union announced Saturday, allowing members to return to work at idled factories.
According to a statement issued by the union, the tentative agreement, reached after 44 days of strike action that simultaneously targeted Detroit’s ‘Big Three’ automakers, includes a 25 percent raise in base wages by 2028.
Cost-of-living increases will hike the top wage by 33%, to more than $42 per hour.
Any preliminary agreement with European automaker Stellantis, like the Ford accord, would require UAW members to vote on it.
“But in the meantime, striking Stellantis workers, like those at Ford, will return to work while the agreement goes through the ratification process”, the United Automobile Workers (UAW) said.
The salary rise in the tentative agreement is less than the 40% sought by UAW President Shawn Fain when the union went on strike on September 15 at Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis.
However, it is far higher than the 9% rise requested by Ford in August.
President Joe Biden praised the deal.
“I applaud the UAW and Stellantis for coming together after hard-fought, good-faith negotiations to reach a historic agreement that will guarantee workers the pay, benefits, dignity, and respect they deserve”, he said in a statement.
“Once again, we have achieved what just weeks ago we were told was impossible”, Fain remarked.
He went on to say, “We have begun to turn the tide in the war on the American working class”.
Stellantis will add 5,000 jobs over the length of the deal, according to Fain, reversing the job losses the automaker was seeking prior to the negotiations.
Following the tentative agreement reached with Ford on Wednesday, the UAW stated that it will push employees to return to work at the facilities targeted by the strike in order to put pressure on General Motors and Stellantis.
Prior to the Ford deal, more than 45,000 workers went on strike as part of a plan in which the UAW gradually increased the number of factories targeted by stoppages as it sought better conditions.
GM is currently the only automaker without a tentative agreement.
Earlier this week, a strike was called at its workplace in Arlington, Texas.
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