Chanting “No contract, no peace” and “No justice, no parts,” some 60 workers at the Stellantis Chrysler Mopar Cleveland Parts Distribution Center in Streetsboro walked off the job, joining union members at 37 other General Motors and Stellantis plants in 20 states as the United Auto Workers strike ramped up on Friday.
About 60 autoworkers are striking outside the Chrysler Mopar distribution center in Streetsboro. As trucks arrive at the plant, they tell them to turn around @Ideastream pic.twitter.com/RX81Q8X4EY
— Anna Huntsman (@AnnaHuntsman_) September 22, 2023
Day shift workers wearing red UAW shirts walked off the job at noon as part of a "stand up" strike strategy, according to UAW President Shawn Fain, who said in a video Friday, the workers are seeking to “win record contracts after years of record profits.”
“It used to be a big thing that – ‘oh, you’re an autoworker, you’re doing well.’ No, we’re not,” said Kelly Monegan, a scheduling coordinator who’s been with the company for nearly 26 years.
Wages through the years haven’t kept up with the cost of living, Monegan said.
Monegan is what’s known as a “legacy employee,” meaning she was hired before 2007, she said.
After facing major economic shortfalls during the Great Recession and eventually declaring bankruptcy, Chrysler – now owned by Stellantis – changed employee benefits, cut pensions and set lower wages with new employees to help stay afloat.
Employees hired after 2007 are on a “tiered” pay scale – one of the key disagreements between UAW and leaders of the auto companies, Monegan said.
Monegan is especially concerned for newer hires who don’t have the pay and benefits she and her colleagues had when they were at that level.
Take, for example, Krista Burcham, a picker at the plant who was hired in 2016.
She’s frustrated with the staggered pay scale, she said.
“There’s people that worked, like, a year and a half longer than I have, and they’re making nine, 10 bucks more an hour than I am… and we’re working the exact same job,” Burcham said.
Burcham would like the auto companies to do away with the tiered system and bring back cost-of-living increases, as well as improve medical benefits.
Shannon Cardinale, a Local 573 member who’s worked at the Streetsboro plant for nearly 25 years, recalled supporting her daughter, who’s now an accountant, while living paycheck to paycheck in the early days, she said.
“I know that I was fortunate enough to do that, but there's a lot of people in this world that haven't, and the people who are working underneath me are never going to be able to do that. And that's not fair,” Cardinale said.
About 50 of the union members striking in Streetsboro used to work at a stamping plant in Twinsburg, said member Charvis Brantley.
Chrysler closed the plant following its bankruptcy in 2010. To help offset the economic shortfalls from the recession, the union agreed at the time to give up some contractual rights and overtime rates, Brantley said, but they were told they’d get those concessions back.
That still hasn’t happened, he added.
"A lot of people think we're asking for something that we don't deserve - these are actually things that we had that we gave up so the company could keep going. A lot of people don't know that, but those are the truths,” Brantley said. “We gave up these things in concessions to keep the company going, and they don't even want to talk about it anymore."
The union is also seeking a 40% wage increase and a 32-hour work week for 40 hours of pay.
"We’re not going to wait around forever for a fair contract at the Big 3," Fain said in his Friday video. "The companies know how to make this right."
The #UAW stand up strike expands at noon today.#StandUpUAW pic.twitter.com/kBNIL9M8bW
— UAW (@UAW) September 22, 2023
The Streetsboro workers join union members in Toledo, Detroit and Wentzville, Missouri, who began the strike Sept. 14.
