DETROIT — A UAW leader responsible for the Stellantis department on Friday called on Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares to resign and said he did not accept the company’s argument that plans to delay the reopening of Belvidere Assembly in Illinois were permitted under the terms of the national contract.
“I think he needs to either go or hire someone close to him to work side by side with him in running the company, because I don’t think he knows what he’s doing,” Kevin Gotinsky, director of the UAW’s Stellantis department, told reporters after a union rally here.
Gotinsky’s comments echo UAW President Shawn Fain, who lashed out at Tavares in an Aug. 16 video saying, “It’s time for a change, and that starts with the man at the top.”
The union has criticized the CEO’s handling of recent layoffs and threatened to strike at the automaker over its failure to meet its commitment to reopen the idled Belvidere plant by 2027. Stellantis has acknowledged plans to delay the reopening but said the union agreed to language allowing it.
In a memo sent to Stellantis employees obtained by Automotive News, the company cited the national contract’s 311 letter, which says product investment and employment levels are “conditional on plant performance, changing market conditions and consumer demand that continues to drive sustainable and profitable volumes for all U.S. manufacturing facilities described above.”
The company, in the memo, told employees that a strike would be illegal and that it would “challenge such action through all available legal means.”
Gotinsky said Friday that the UAW did not believe that was true.
“We’ve been meeting for months about these situations, and not once have they talked about market conditions,” Gotinsky told reporters. “There are situations where we can obviously have conversations about making changes to the investment, but that’s never been discussed.
“How can [Tavares] give yourself a raise if there are conditions they say. Our contract expires in May 2028, and they’re trying to push it to Q4 2028, so they’re trying to get out of the commitment altogether.”
Leaders at the rally accused Tavares of failing to show up at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant after saying he would. Michael Spencer, president of UAW Local 1700, which represents workers there, said he received a last-minute invitation to meet with Tavares but had not heard back as of Friday afternoon about the details.
A Stellantis spokesperson, in a statement, said the “progress review went as planned. We appreciate the [Sterling Heights Assembly Plant] team for the significant progress that has been made in recent months.”
Tavares was seen by an Automotive News reporter Thursday night speaking at a suburban Detroit restaurant with Stellantis Chairman John Elkann.
Gotinsky said he first officially heard about Belvidere’s reprieve when he took over as director in late May, after Fain removed Vice President Rich Boyer from oversight of the automaker — a move that is being investigated by the union’s federal monitor.
Despite rising tensions, Gotinsky said both sides were still talking.
“There is communication,” he said. “They know where we’re coming from loud and clear, but the leader at the top has something else in mind, unfortunately. We’re going to try to get him to do what’s right.”