The United Auto Workers union on Saturday reached a tentative contract with Stellantis.
The Detroit-based union said the accord will reopen a closed plant in Belvidere, Illinois. The union said the agreement, if ratified by members, will preserve 5,000 jobs that had been cut and add another 5,000.
According to a union video, a new truck model will be added at the Illinois facility while additional electric vehicle battery jobs will come to the complex.
“Once again, we’ve achieved what we were told was impossible,” union president Shawn Fain said on the livestream.
Stellantis, which includes the former Chrysler Corp., confirmed the agreement in a statement on its media website.
Neither the union nor company specified terms of the accord. The UAW earlier this week reached a four-and-a-half-year tentative agreement with Ford Motor Co. that called for raises of 25% during the pact and included cost-of-living adjustments the UAW estimated would mean even higher pay.
The UAW began striking at selected operations at Ford, Stellantis and General Motors Co. in mid-September. As the walkout progressed, the union added more operations to the strike.
Earlier this month, the union added the largest, most profitabile vehicle-assembly operations of all three automakers to the strike.
On Wednesday, the UAW reached a tentative agreement at Ford. The union ended its strike at that company while the ratification process proceeded. That move was intended to put pressure at Stellantis and GM to follow suit.
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