TOLEDO, Ohio — For months last year, United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain had warned the Big 3 automakers that September 14 was not a suggestion, but a deadline.
After failing to reach new contracts by the stroke of midnight, he kept his word, calling on workers at three major assembly plants to walk off the job.
Now a year later, there’s no doubt autoworkers at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, formerly Chrysler, are earning more money. For some, significantly more.
At the same time, particularly at Stellantis, workers say they face a highly uncertain future, with little faith that their new record contracts , achieved after a painful six-week strike, will keep their jobs intact.
“This is the lowest that morale’s been in the 11 years that I’ve been here,” says Jim Cooper, a team leader at Stellantis’ Toledo Assembly Complex where the Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Gladiator are built.
