Members of UAW Local 1166 Monday voted to ratify an agreement with Stellantis on improvements in local working conditions, ending a brief strike and clearing the way for the company to reopen a casting plant in Kokomo, Indiana.
Production at the facility, one of the largest casting plants in the world, stalled early Saturday after union workers went on strike to enforce demands for improvements that would alleviate some of the excessive heat inside the plant where temperatures reached 130 degrees this summer, according to several social media posts and references in letters to local members.
Talks had been going on for more than three years, the union officials noted.
Stellantis, the company created last year by the merger of PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler, said it was committed to maintaining a safe working environment for all of employees.
The casting plant sits is part of a larger campus in and around Kokomo that employs nearly 7,000 people. The castings are used for engines and transmissions in Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram products built and sold by Stellantis in North America.
In May, Stellantis announced plans to build a $3 billion battery plant in Kokomo. The battery plant is eventually expected to absorb some of the workers displaced by the shift from internal combustion engines to all-electric vehicles.
Other disputes loom
The shift from ICE vehicles is expected to accelerate in the coming decade and become a major topic of discussion between Detroit’s three automakers and the UAW.
Union leaders used the new battery plant as a rallying cry for the striking workers, saying if Stellantis can afford to build a new plant, it certainly can spend money to improve an existing one.
While UAW members now assemble electric vehicles such as the Ford F-150 Lightning and GMC Hummer EV, the union represents few of the workers handling the batteries powering the vehicles — even as carmakers move resources from the development of combustion engines and powertrains to EVs.
Stellantis said the work stoppage in the Kokomo casting plant did not interrupt production at other plants.
Meanwhile, the auto industry is beginning to brace for potential fallout from a railroad strike that could begin by week’s end. Automakers depend on railroads to move finished vehicles. Snarled rail traffic has already disrupted shipment of finished vehicles from the Midwest to the West Coast, Honda reported last week.