DETROIT — Nearly 1,000 workers at a Michigan supplier plant that makes parts for General Motors pickup trucks went on strike Monday after not reaching a new contract with the company.

The United Auto Workers union on Monday confirmed workers at an axle and components plant in Three Rivers, Michigan, for Dauch Corp. — formerly known as American Axle and Manufacturing — walked out of the factory and onto picket lines at 12:01 a.m. ET Monday.

The union did not release a full list of demands, but said in a press release Sunday night that workers are still trying to regain wages lost during the Great Recession.

“We’ll stay out on strike until this company comes to its senses,” UAW President Shawn Fain said during a Sunday video announcement. “The full force of the UAW international union will be standing with these workers. So, American Axle, time is up. No contract, no axles.”

The union said longtime workers who were making as much as $29 an hour saw their wages slashed to $14.50 in 2008. Current wages top out at $22 an hour after a five-year progression, the union said.

A spokesman for Dauch in an emailed statement called the strike “disappointing.” He did not immediately respond to a question about bargaining details.

“The company believes that the best outcomes for everyone — our associates, the union, and the company — are reached at the bargaining table. We remain committed to negotiating with the union in good faith and hope to promptly reach a fair agreement,” the company statement read.

A spokesman for GM said the automaker “is closely monitoring the situation” and “assessing any potential impact.” As of Monday, production at GM’s plants was operating as usual.

The impacted plant produces axles for GM’s Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize pickup trucks as well as its heavy-duty Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. Other production includes smaller components for the Detroit automaker’s light-duty Silverado and Sierra pickups as well as parts of Stellantis’ Chrysler Pacifica minivan, a union spokesman confirmed.

Stellantis did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

Josh Jager, a 24-year American Axle employee and chairman of the bargaining committee for UAW Local 2093, which represents the striking workers, told the Wall Street Journal that GM appears to have about two weeks’ worth of axles in stock.

DETROIT — Stellantis is suing the United Auto Workers, escalating a monthslong battle between the transatlantic automaker and American union, CNBC has learned.

In an internal message Friday to employees that was confirmed to be authentic, the company said it is suing the UAW as well as a local chapter in California that participated in a strike authorization request vote at Stellantis’ Los Angeles Parts Distribution Center.

“This lawsuit would hold both the International and the local union liable for the revenue loss and other damages resulting from lost production due to an unlawful strike,” Tobin Williams, Stellantis senior vice president of North America human resources, said in the message.

The lawsuit is intended to “prevent and/or remedy a breach of contract” by the UAW, according to a copy of the complaint that was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California.

A supermajority of UAW members at Stellantis’ Los Angeles Parts Distribution Center voted to request strike authorization from the International Executive Board if the company and union can’t reconcile, the union said Friday morning.

The UAW did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon regarding the lawsuit.

The dispute between the two sides centers on the union alleging Stellantis has not kept contractual obligations as part of a deal the two sides reached late last year. It comes after Stellantis has made several cuts to plant production, conducted worker layoffs and delayed potential investments outlined as part of the 2023 contract.

The automaker has argued, including in the Friday letter to employees, that there’s language in the contract that gives it leniency to change plans based on market conditions, plant performance and other factors.

UAW President Shawn Fain has routinely said the union will strike if needed, however Stellantis has argued that would be unlawful under the contract.

This is breaking news. Please check back for additional updates.

DETROIT – A year after unprecedented strikes by the United Auto Workers against the Detroit automakers, the union is once again threatening work stoppages that could disrupt the U.S. automotive industry.

The UAW on Wednesday announced a strike deadline at a Ford Motor tool and die plant that supports the automaker’s Rouge Complex near Detroit – one of two U.S. plants that produce the company’s highly profitable F-150 pickup truck.

The 11:59 p.m. Sept. 25 strike deadline came a day after UAW President Shawn Fain announced plans to hold strike authorization votes at one or more local unions covering Stellantis plants in the U.S.

Both announcements amount to warning shots against Ford and Stellantis and center on union contracts and local issues at the facilities. The union has not announced similar actions against General Motors.

UAW members are covered by national agreements, which include issues such as wages, bonuses and other benefits, as well as local contracts that are tailored to each facility.

Local contracts have historically taken months, if not years, to settle after a national agreement is reached. Sometimes they are not settled at all during the terms of the national deal.

Last year’s auto worker strikes came during historic negotiations over national contracts with all three Detroit automakers at once. The union won record wage increases — 25% over the term of the deal — and reinstatement of cost-of-living adjustments, but labor experts said it could be at the expense of jobs.

The most recent strike deadline for Ford was called over local plant negotiations involving “job security, wage parity for Skilled Trades, as well as work rules,” according to the union.

A strike at a supporting facility for an assembly plant could impact vehicle assembly if the automaker cannot make contingency plans for the parts. The plant employs fewer than 500 workers.

Ford, in a statement Thursday, said negotiations with the union are ongoing: “Ford invested $15 million in the plant last year and we have been at the table problem-solving. Negotiations continue and we look forward to reaching an agreement with UAW Local 600 at Dearborn Tool & Die.”

The strike deadline takes tensions there a step further than at Stellantis, where the union has announced authorization voting. Strike authorization votes are procedural. They are votes by workers to authorize UAW leaders to call a strike, if warranted. Such votes for the national contract negotiations typically pass with more than 90% of worker approval.

The announced voting at Stellantis comes after months of mudslinging by Fain against Stellantis and its CEO, Carlos Tavares, following product cuts, layoffs and other actions that the union has deemed detrimental to union workers, including the potential to move production of vehicles such as the Dodge Durango out of the U.S.

The union on Monday filed unfair labor practice claims with the National Labor Relations Board against Stellantis, saying the automaker refused to “provide the Union with relevant information” regarding investments and products.

“The company wants you to be scared, but we are 100% within our rights and within our power to take strike action if necessary,” Fain said Tuesday night during an online broadcast.

Stellantis has contended such a strike would be illegal.

Fain has been adamant that the union won the right to strike over the automakers’ product and investment commitments during national bargaining. However, there remains language in the contracts regarding market conditions, economics and other factors that could grant the company leniency.  

Stellantis Tuesday night after Fain’s strike authorization vote announcement criticized the union leader for his actions and comments.

“Shawn Fain continues to allege that the company has violated the contract, but to date has provided no data or information to back up his claims. Instead, he continues to willfully damage the reputation of the company with his public attacks which is helpful to no one including his members,” Stellantis said in an emailed statement.

Stellantis said a strike “does not benefit anyone – our customers, our dealers, the community and, most importantly, our employees.”

In addition to Monday’s NLRB complaint against the company, Fain said 28 Stellantis locals have filed grievances against the automaker. Those complaints cover about 98% of Stellantis’ UAW-represented workforce, according to the union.

“Once we’ve authorized a strike at a local, we meet with the company seven times and either resolve the issue or take strike action as our union sees fit,” Fain said.

As of the beginning of this year, Stellantis employed roughly 43,000 workers represented by the union.

The union this week also began contract negotiations with Volkswagen. VW workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, overwhelmingly voted in favor of UAW representation earlier this year.

DETROIT – United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain ratcheted up criticism of Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares in a video Friday afternoon, accusing the chief executive of price gouging consumers and failing to uphold parts of the union’s labor contract with the automaker.

The comments are the latest in an ongoing back-and-forth between the CEO and union leader following contentious collective bargaining talks last year between the UAW and Detroit automakers, including Stellantis.

“Something is rotten at Stellantis,” Fain said to begin the 2:30-minute video posted Friday. “Sales are down, profits are down, and CEO pay is way, way up. The problem isn’t the market at GM and Ford, auto sales are up, and the problem isn’t the auto workers. The problem is this man, Carlos Tavares.”

Spokespeople for the union and automaker did not immediately respond for comment regarding the accusations or video.

Several of the criticisms, including those around job cuts and Tarvares’ pay, aren’t new. But Fain’s comments Friday took the claims a step further, accusing Tavares of price gouging consumers in the name of profits. He also alleges that Stellantis is not honoring parts of the company’s worker contract, citing specifically that Stellantis is halting plans to reopen an assembly plat in Illinois.

“Fact, for years, Stellantis has sold fewer cars, but made more in profits. What does that tell you? They’re price gouging. Now they’ve gone too far, and they’re tanking their own sales,” Fain said. “Fact, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares is trying to go back on commitments the company made in our last contract, including putting the brakes on reopening the Belvedere Assembly.”

Tavares recently criticized the UAW-Stellantis workforce, noting quality problems at a truck plant in metro Detroit producing the Ram 1500 pickup truck. The company also has announced thousands of layoffs at U.S. plants amid declining sales and product changes.

“The direct run rate of some of our plans starting with SHAP, Sterling Heights, is not good,” Tavares told reporters July 25 while discussing ongoing issues with the company. “That is something that we need to fix with our plant management team as well with our people.”

Tavares has been on a cost-cutting mission since the company was formed through a merger between Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA Groupe in January 2021. It’s part of his “Dare Forward 2030” plan to increase profits and double revenue to 300 billion euros ($325 billion) by 2030.

The cost-saving measures have included reshaping the company’s supply chain and operations as well as headcount reductions for both salaried and hourly workers.

Stellantis has reduced headcount by 15.5%, or roughly 47,500 employees, between December 2019 and the end of 2023, including a 14.5% reduction in North America, according to public filings. That doesn’t include further headcount reductions and layoffs this year.

Several executives previously described the cuts to CNBC as grueling to the point of excessiveness. Tavares last month pushed back on the idea that the company’s cost-cutting efforts have led to its current problems.

DETROIT — United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain is under investigation by a federal court-appointed watchdog who is tasked with monitoring the union and eliminating corruption, according to a Monday court filing.

The monitor, Neil Barofsky, is investigating whether Fain abused his power as union president. He also accuses union leaders, including Fain, of obstructing the investigation and interfering with his access to information.

Such actions could potentially violate a 2020 consent decree between the UAW and the U.S. Department of Justice that avoided a federal takeover of the union.

“The Monitor has attempted for months to garner the Union’s cooperation in gathering the information needed to conduct a full investigation, but the Union has effectively slow-rolled the Monitor’s access to requested documents,” the court filing reads.

More recently, the filing says the monitor expanded the investigation to include additional allegations of retaliation by Fain against one of the union’s vice presidents.

The monitor also opened an unrelated investigation into another unnamed UAW International Executive Board, or IEB, member, a regional director, after receiving allegations of potential embezzlement, according to the filing.

Without specifically addressing any issues in the filing, Fain released a statement Monday night: “Taking our union in a new direction means sometimes you have to rock the boat, and that upsets some people who want to keep the status quo, but our membership expects better and deserves better than the old business as usual.

“We encourage the Monitor to investigate whatever claims are brought to their office, because we know what they’ll find: a UAW leadership committed to serving the membership, and running a democratic union. We’re staying focused on winning record contracts, growing our union, and fighting for economic and social justice on and off the job.”

The union is in the middle of a national organizing drive of nonunion automakers. The accusations follow Fain’s rise to international prominence after the union under his leadership scored record-setting contracts last year with General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis.

The court filing, which was first reported by The Detroit News, says Barofsky’s concerns largely began in February, after the monitor “began investigating current members of the IEB—including the President, Secretary-Treasurer, and one of the Union’s Regional Directors.”

The probe stems from union leaders removing all responsibilities assigned to Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock that were not constitutionally required amid allegations she had engaged in misconduct while carrying out her financial oversight responsibilities.

In response, the filing says Mock “lodged allegations of her own against the Union’s President that, among other things, the charges against her were false, and that the removal of her authority was improperly instigated in retaliation for her refusal or reluctance to authorize certain expenditures.”

The filing states more than three months after the monitor’s initial document request, the union has produced “a very small portion (approximately 2,600 documents) of the current potentially relevant pool of approximately 116,000—and with more than 80% of those documents only produced on June 6, 2024, days before the issuance of this report.”

The monitor believes the “union’s delay of relevant documents is obstructing and interfering with his access to information needed for his investigative work, and, if left unaddressed, is an apparent violation of the Consent Decree,” the filing reads.

The consent decree followed a yearslong corruption probe into the union involving embezzlement, bribery and other charges. It resulted in several convictions of union leaders and Fiat Chrysler executives, including two past union presidents.

DETROIT – The United Auto Workers union is challenging the results of last week’s organizing vote of Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama, in which workers voted against union representation, and is asking federal officials to order a new election.

Among a dozen or so claims, the Detroit union alleges that the German automaker fired four pro-union workers, forced workers to attend anti-union meetings, and interfered with workers’ ability to advocate for the union.

Union organizing failed at the Alabama plant with 56% of the vote, or 2,642 workers, casting ballots against the UAW, according to the NLRB, which oversaw the election. More than 90% of the 5,075 eligible Mercedes-Benz workers voted in the election.

“All these workers ever wanted was a fair shot at having a voice on the job and a say in their working conditions,” the UAW said in a statement. “And that’s what we’re asking for here. Let’s get a vote at Mercedes in Alabama where the company isn’t allowed to fire people, isn’t allowed to intimidate people, and isn’t allowed to break the law and their own corporate code, and let the workers decide.”

The National Labor Relations Board confirmed Friday afternoon that its Atlanta-based office received the UAW’s objections to the election. Friday was the last day the union could file objections and challenge the election.

Mercedes-Benz in a statement Friday said company officials “worked with the NLRB to adhere to its guidelines and we will continue to do so” through the objection process. The automaker said it “sincerely hoped the UAW would respect our Team Members’ decision.”

The NLRB said its regional director will review the UAW’s allegations of an unfair election. If she finds that the objections raise substantial and material issues of fact that could be best resolved by a hearing, she will order a hearing. If after the hearing, she finds that the employer’s conduct affected the election, she can order a new election.

The agency also reconfirmed that it is processing and investigating unfair labor practice charges filed by the UAW against automakers, including six unfair labor practice charges against Mercedes-Benz since March.

After the results were announced, UAW President Shawn Fain accused the company of conducting an anti-union campaign, including “egregious illegal behavior,” but he declined to discuss the union’s potential plans to object to the results.

Fain said on May 17 that the union would continue to move forward with its charges against Mercedes-Benz, which allege that Mercedes-Benz has “disciplined employees for discussing unionization at work, prohibited distribution of union materials and paraphernalia, surveilled employees, discharged union supporters, forced employees to attend captive audience meetings, and made statements suggesting that union activity is futile,” the NLRB previously said.

The Alabama results were a blow to the UAW’s organizing efforts a month after it won an organizing drive of roughly 4,330 Volkswagen plant workers in Tennessee.

The Mercedes-Benz vote was expected to be more challenging for the union than the vote at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, where the union had already established a presence after two failed organizing drives in the past decade and where it faced less opposition from the automaker.

Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama have voted against union representation by the United Auto Workers, the National Labor Relations Board said Friday.

The results are a blow to the UAW’s organizing efforts a month after the Detroit union won an organizing drive of roughly 4,330 Volkswagen plant workers in Tennessee. Voting started Monday and ended Friday.

Union organizing failed with 56% of the vote, or 2,642 workers, casting ballots against the UAW, according to the NLRB, which oversaw the election. More than 90% of the 5,075 eligible Mercedes-Benz workers voted in the election, according to the results.

The NLRB said 51 ballots were challenged and not counted, but they aren’t determinative to the outcome of the election. There were five void ballots. 

The union and company have five business days to file objections to the election, including any alleged interference, according to the NLRB. If no objections are filed, the election result will be certified, and the union will have to wait one year to file for a union election for a similar bargaining unit.

Mercedes-Benz in a statement said company officials “look forward to continuing to work directly with our Team Members to ensure [Mercedes-Benz US International] is not only their employer of choice, but a place they would recommend to friends and family.”

The loss is expected to hurt the UAW in an unprecedented organizing drive launched late last year of 13 non-union automakers in the U.S. after securing record contracts with Detroit automakers Ford Motor, General Motors and Stellantis. Those agreements included significant wage increase, reinstatement of cost-of-living adjustments and other benefits.

UAW President Shawn Fain said while the Mercedes-Benz vote was obviously not the result the union wanted, it was a valiant effort, adding the vote “isn’t a failure” but a “bump in the road.”

“While this loss stings, I’ll tell you this, we’re going to keep our heads up, keep our heads up high. These workers have nothing to do but be proud in the effort they put forth and what they’ve done,” he said Friday during a media conference. “We fought the good fight and we’re going to continue on, continue forward. Ultimately, these workers here are going to win.”

The Mercedes-Benz vote was expected to be more challenging for the union than the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, where the union had already established a presence after two failed organizing drives in the past decade and where it faced less opposition from the automaker.

Stephen Silvia, author of “The UAW’s Southern Gamble: Organizing Workers at Foreign-Owned Vehicle Plants,” noted Mercedes-Benz replaced the plant’s leader weeks ahead of the election. He said companies routinely do this, promising workers changes at their facilities in an effort to stave of organizing.

“Companies do anti-union campaigns because they can be effective, and I think this one was effective,” said Silvia, a professor at American University in Washington, D.C. “A common piece of an anti-union campaign is firing the plant manager … That seems to have persuaded enough of the workers to vote against the union.”

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, who was one of six Republican governors to condemn the union’s organizing drive, hailed the outcome of the vote.

“The workers in Vance have spoken, and they have spoken clearly! Alabama is not Michigan, and we are not the Sweet Home to the UAW. We urge the UAW to respect the results of this secret ballot election,” she said.

Workers at Mercedes-Benz’s Tuscaloosa plant, located about 60 miles southwest of Birmingham, have produced more than 4 million vehicles since the plant opened in 1997, including 295,000 vehicles in 2023, according to the plant’s website.

The Alabama plant currently produces vehicles such as the gas-powered GLE and GLS Maybach SUVs as well as the all-electric EQS and EQE SUVs.

The NLRB last week said it continues to process and investigate open unfair labor practice charges filed by the UAW against automakers, including six unfair labor practice charges against Mercedes-Benz since March.

Fain said Friday the union would continue to move forward with those charges. He declined to say whether the union plans to challenge the election results, saying he’d “leave that” to the union’s legal team.

The charges allege that Mercedes-Benz has “disciplined employees for discussing unionization at work, prohibited distribution of union materials and paraphernalia, surveilled employees, discharged union supporters, forced employees to attend captive audience meetings, and made statements suggesting that union activity is futile,” the NLRB said.

The union has filed other charges against automakers Honda, Hyundai, Lucid, Rivian, Tesla and Toyota, according to the NLRB.

Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, have overwhelmingly voted to join the United Auto Workers — marking a major milestone for the union and its first successful organizing drive of an automaker outside of Detroit’s Big Three.

Union organizing passed with 73% of the vote, or 2,628 workers, in support for the UAW, according to the National Labor Relations Board, which oversaw the election. A total of roughly 3,620, or about 84%, of the 4,326 eligible VW workers voted in the election, the NLRB said. Seven ballots were challenged and three others were voided.

“In a historic victory, an overwhelming majority of Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, have voted to join the UAW,” the union said in a release Friday night before official results were released by the NLRB. “While votes continue to be tallied, the outcome is clear: Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga are the first Southern autoworkers outside of the Big Three to win their union.”

The NLRB still must certify the result, but barring any unexpected issues or challenges, the company is required to bargain in good faith with the union. The talks can be direct or go first through a mediator.

The sides have five business days to file objections to the election, according to the NLRB. If no objections are filed, the result will be certified.

VW confirmed the UAW’s win in a release Friday night but offered little additional comment.

“We will await certification of the results by the NLRB,” the company said. “Volkswagen thanks its Chattanooga workers for voting in this election.”

UAW leaders and supporters are expected to use the win as a launching point for the union’s unprecedented organizing campaign of 13 automakers in the U.S. following major contract wins last year with General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler parent Stellantis.

President Joe Biden, who has heavily supported organized labor and the UAW, congratulated the union on its “historic vote.”

“Across the country, union members have logged major wins and large raises, including auto workers, actors, port workers, Teamsters, writers, warehouse and health care workers, and more. Together, these union wins have helped raise wages and demonstrate once again that the middle-class built America and that unions are still building and expanding the middle class for all workers,” Biden said in a statement.

UAW President Shawn Fain and others saw this week’s vote as the union’s best shot at organizing the VW plant following the strikes and record contracts at the Detroit automakers. Those agreements included significant wage increase, reinstatement of cost-of-living adjustments and other benefits.

The successful organizing drive comes days after six Republican governors of Southern states, including Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, released a joint statement condemning the UAW’s push to organize in their states.

“We have worked tirelessly on behalf of our constituents to bring good-paying jobs to our states. These jobs have become part of the fabric of the automotive manufacturing industry. Unionization would certainly put our states’ jobs in jeopardy — in fact, in this year already, all of the UAW automakers have announced layoffs,” the statement said.

The UAW previously failed to organize the Volkswagen plant in 2014 and 2019 as it faced greater outside political pressure and worker opposition. Workers rejected union membership by just 833 to 776 votes five years ago.

The union will now set its sights on negotiating with VW. It will also look to an anticipated organizing vote of Mercedes-Benz workers at an SUV plant in Vance, Alabama.

Workers at the facility earlier this month filed NLRB paperwork for a formal election to join the UAW. The vote for 5,200 workers will occur from May 13 through May 17, the NLRB announced Thursday.

“The first thing you need to do to win is to believe that you can win,” Fain told Mercedes-Benz workers last month. “That this job can be better. That your life can be better. And that those things are worth fighting for. That is why we stand up. That’s why you’re here today. Because deep down, you believe it’s possible.”

Fain previously vowed to move beyond the Big Three and expand to the “Big Five or Big Six” by the time its four-and-a-half-year contracts with the Detroit automakers expire in 2028.

DETROIT — Volkswagen workers at a plant in Tennessee have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a vote to join the United Auto Workers, the union announced Monday.

The filing comes after a “supermajority of Volkswagen workers have signed union cards in just 100 days,” the union said, marking a major milestone in the labor group’s organizing drives of nonunionized auto plants in the U.S.

The UAW has previously failed to organize foreign-based automakers in the U.S. Most recently, plants with Volkswagen and Nissan fell short of the support needed to unionize. In 2019, VW workers at the Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant rejected union representation in an 833-776 vote. 

The Chattanooga plant is VW’s only U.S. assembly plant and employs more than 4,000 autoworkers who would be eligible to vote for union representation.

VW confirmed receiving a notice that the UAW has filed a petition with the NLRB to hold an election. The company said it respects its workers’ right to a democratic process and to organize.

“We will fully support an NLRB vote so every team member has a chance to vote in privacy in this important decision. The election timeline will be determined by the NLRB. Volkswagen is proud of our working environment in Chattanooga that provides some of the best paying jobs in the area,” the company said in an emailed statement.

VW production workers at the plant earn between $23.40 per hour and $32.40 per hour, with a four-year grow-in period to top wages, according to the company.

VW’s hourly wages are lower than those the UAW negotiated last year with the Detroit automakers, which this year range between about $25 an hour and $36 an hour for production workers, including estimated cost-of-living adjustments, or COLA. By the end of the UAW contracts, top wages are expected to surpass $42 an hour for production workers.

VW is one of 13 nonunion automakers in the U.S. that the UAW set its sights on late last year after securing record contracts with the Detroit automakers.

The drive covers nearly 150,000 autoworkers across BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Lucid, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Rivian, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.