Biden Hails “Historic Agreement” After Striking United Auto Workers Reach Tentative Deal With Second Major Automaker

The United Auto Workers union announced Saturday evening that it had come to a tentative labor agreement with Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram, on a new contract following a six-week strike.

The agreement, which covers nearly 15,000 workers, follows closely on the heels of a similar deal reached between the union and fellow “Big Three” automaker Ford—a significant victory for President Joe Biden, who threw his full-throated support behind striking auto workers.

“We have won a record-breaking contract,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a video posted on social media Saturday evening. “We truly believe we got every penny possible out of the company.”

Fain added that the overall value of the Stellantis agreement, which includes a 25 percent wage increase for UAW members, was double what the company initially offered when the strike began in September.

The UAW also secured the right to strike if Stellantis closes any plant or fails to fulfill promised investments. “If the company goes back on their words on any plant, we can strike the hell out of them,” Fain said.

In a statement released by the White House, Biden congratulated the union and Stellantis on “a historic agreement that will guarantee workers the pay, benefits, dignity and respect they deserve.” The tentative contract, he said, “is a testament to the power of unions and collective bargaining to build strong middle-class jobs while helping our most iconic American companies thrive.”

Early in the strike, top Republicans gleefully embraced the opportunity to tie the president to an expanding work stoppage that threatened to reignite inflation or plunge the country into a recession. Those comments grew louder when Biden made history in late September by visiting striking workers at the picket line in Detroit, encouraging the union to “stick with it.”

But the president’s gamble paid off. On Thursday, Biden took the Ford agreement as an opportunity to tout the country’s third-quarter GDP report, which showed 4.9% growth and subsiding inflation, defying warnings of a recession, and to call out the chaos roiling the GOP.

“I hope Republicans in Congress will join me in working to build on this progress, rather than putting our economy at risk with reckless threats of a shutdown or proposals to cut taxes for the wealthy and large corporations while slashing programs that are essential for hard-working families and seniors.”

Now, the only Big Three company still waiting to come to a tentative agreement is General Motors. On Saturday evening, a local UAW chapter in Tennessee announced that a GM manufacturing facility that employs 4,000 union and non-union workers would be joining the strike, an escalation meant to ratchet up pressure on the company.

A GM spokesman said the company was “disappointed by the UAW’s action in light of the progress we have made.”