United Auto Workers (UAW) union Vice President, Rich Boyer revealed Sunday that Dodge-Chrysler parent Stellantis NV (NYSE:STLA) threatened to relocate production of their Ram 1500 pickup trucks from its location in metro Detroit to a facility in Mexico.
The threat comes as contract negotiations for thousands of autoworkers have reached a near boiling point. Just last week, the UAW voted unanimously to award powers to leadership to call a strike in the event contract talks fail to reach an agreement by the time the previous contracts expire on September 14th.
Addressing a large gathering of union members at a "Sunday Solidarity" rally, Boyer openly expressed his dissatisfaction with the prospective strategies. He specifically singled out Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, accusing him of showing indifference towards American auto workers.
“He don’t give a s*** about the American auto worker,” Boyer said while addressing the crowd. “United we stand divided we fall.”
Stellantis, which already produces some Ram pickups in Mexico, did not confirm nor deny the potential move.
“Product allocation for our U.S. plants will depend on the outcome of these negotiations as well as a plant’s ability to meet specific performance metrics including improving quality, reducing absenteeism and addressing overall cost,” Stellantis said in a statement.
“As these decisions are fluid and part of the discussions at the bargaining table, we will not comment further," the automaker added.
UAW President Shawn Fain told CNBC that he believes relocating the truck production would “be a huge mistake on the part of Stellantis to try it.”
“Those are our jobs and that’s our vehicle. We expect to keep that work,” he said.
Shares of STLA are up 1.51% in afternoon trading Monday.