Stellantis Hit by Fresh Strike Just Days After UAW Deal. It’s a Surprise.

Apparently, negotiators made progress. The strike ended just before 8 a.m. Eastern time. Unifor didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about when workers would return to plants. It’s likely they will go back before the agreement is ratified. The impact on Stellantis operations in Canada should be, essentially, nothing.

The Canadian strike came just after the Chrysler parent reached a deal with the UAW on Saturday. The Stellantis tentative agreement came days after
Ford Motor
(F) came to its own tentative agreement with the UAW on Oct. 25.

However, the UAW also announced on Saturday that it would expand its
General Motors
(GM) strike, adding GM’s Spring Hill, Tenn., plant, which makes several Cadillac and GMC products.

Just as GM is the last of three to reach an agreement with the UAW, Stellantis was the last of the trio to strike a deal with Unifor. 

The GM strike expansion was a surprise. With Ford and Stellantis reaching a tentative agreement (that needs to be ratified by Union members), there isn’t much mystery left regarding what the UAW leadership will accept and what auto makers are willing to give. Labor deals with the Detroit Three auto makers tend to mirror one another.

The UAW and GM didn’t respond to a request for comment about any sticking points. The UAW deals with Stellantis and Ford both including base wage increases of roughly 25% over the life of a four-plus year contract as well as adjustments for inflation. Assembly-line workers with enough seniority will be making roughly $42 an hour, plus benefits and profit-sharing, at both car markers by the end of the contract.

The UAW strike expansion is surprising in the same way the Stellantis strike by Unifor was surprising. Stellantis already knows what GM and Ford’s workers represented by Unifor got. The GM and Ford deals include wage increases of roughly 15% to 16% along with inflation-related adjustments.

What’s more, Stellantis wasn’t a holdout. Unifor stuck to the old practice of pattern bargaining. The Union started with Ford, got a deal, negotiated with GM, finished that deal, and then moved to Stellantis.

In the U.S., the UAW strike all three auto makers at once. That’s unprecedented in modern times, according to the UAW.

The wage increases between Unifor and the UAW differ for a couple of reasons. For starters, Unifor signed three-year deals with GM and Ford. Canadian auto workers and U.S. auto workers also have different contracts with different starting points.

The Unifor strike didn’t last long. Stellantis said it was “extremely disappointed” with the strike action. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the deal.

Stellantis stock rose 1.5% in early premarket trading Monday, while GM had ticked up 0.1%, after falling 4.6% Friday. Ford was up 0.7% following a 12% slump Friday after the company reported disappointing earnings.

S&P 500
and
Dow Jones Industrial Average
futures are up 0.6%.

Labor issues have weighed heavily on auto makers for months. Coming into Monday trading, shares of GM and Ford stock were down about 30% and 34%, respectively, since the start of July, while the S&P 500 is off about 7%, and shares of Stellantis, a more global company, are up about 3%.

Write to Callum Keown at [email protected]