Stellantis NV is asking its white-collar workers to volunteer to cross the United Auto Workers’ picket line to work in distribution centers shipping ship out vehicle parts to dealerships, with the call coming from the automaker’s top executives in North America as well as its diversity and inclusion groups.
The UAW on Sept. 22 called out approximately 2,150 UAW members working at Stellantis’ Mopar parts distribution centers to go on strike alongside similar warehouses at General Motors Co. after the parties failed to make progress in their labor negotiations. The move disrupted shipments of parts for vehicle repairs and aftermarket components from getting to dealerships.
As a result, Stellantis’ leaders called upon its non-bargaining-unit workers to help keep parts flowing. In response to the need, its business resource groups focused on marginalized communities also put out requests to their members to help, specifically designating days for their members to volunteer. Its 11 BRGs in the United States include the Women’s Alliance, the Stellantis African American Network Diaspora, Prism LGBTQ+ Alliance, the Veterans Group, the DIVERSE-abilities Network and others.
“Each BRG will pick a specific day of the week/weekend to volunteer as a team,” according to a flier obtained by The Detroit News that was sent to members of the Working Parents Network announcing Oct. 13 as its day at the parts distribution centers. “Help continue to be the RESOURCE the BUSINESS can count on!”
Those interested needed to get manager approval, register and receive training to participate.
The BRGs are a part of Stellantis’ diversity and inclusion efforts to make the workplace a space where employees feel they belong: “They develop multicultural learning opportunities, mentoring and networking events, community outreach initiatives, charitable activities and contribute to the development and improvement of Human Resources policies and processes across Stellantis,” according to the automaker’s website.
In a statement provided by spokesperson Jodi Tinson, the company declined to specify how many employees have volunteered from the calls to action.
“Fulfilling customer needs and maintaining their continued loyalty is a top priority,” the statement said. “As a result, we have solicited non-bargaining unit employee volunteers to support the PDCs in continuing to service our customers. Our Business Resource Groups, made up of passionate and dedicated employees, were among the first to raise their hands and expand their role as a resource for the business.”
The groups represent thousands of Stellantis employees. White-collar as well as manufacturing and bargaining-unit workers are eligible to join them. The company also had begun to create chapters of the BRGs in manufacturing plants to better include and engage workers there.
The UAW didn’t immediately have comment on Friday about the solicitation.
Included in the request sent by the Working Parents Network was a letter, with details on the solicitation effort among the non-bargaining-unit employees, from Mark Stewart, chief operating office in North America, and Mike Koval Jr., the new head of Mopar in North America.
“Following a productive weekend with volunteer assistance at our Centerline and Marysville, Michigan, parts distribution centers, the Mopar team remains in critical and immediate need of volunteers to staff all 18 PDC locations across the country every day,” they wrote. “We’re asking you to strongly consider supporting this important initiative to help maintain customer loyalty, whether they’re fleet owners, first responders or our friends and family.”
The company is requiring workers volunteering at its Center Line and Marysville centers to meet at its technical center in Auburn Hills and take a chartered bus to the sites. Effective this past Wednesday, the company was planning two shifts daily.
Antonio Wright, 28, of Sterling Heights, is on strike at the Center Line parts distribution center. Walking the picket line in the late afternoon approximately every other day, Wright says he’s seen the buses bring workers to his workplace, noting usually there are only a few people onboard.
“There’s max five heads,” he said. “I’m frustrated, angry.”
Fifteen is the largest number of people on a bus reported to Larry Wynn, president of UAW Local 1248 that represents workers at the Mopar centers in Center Line, Romulus and Warren. In recent days. the buses have come daily.
“They are soliciting managers to come in and do our work,” Wynn said. “It’s no different from hiring scabs off the street.”
There is a long history of corporations using business or employee resource group to counter labor movements, said Patricia Campos-Medina, co-director of the Worker Institute at Cornell University.
Diversity and inclusion “is supposed to bring vulnerable communities a feeling of belonging,” she said. Calling upon workers to cross a picket line “divides them.”
“The messaging of the UAW in cutting across gender, race and age differences has been effective,” Campos-Medina added. “That is why the strike is effective.”
Cheryl Thompson, CEO of the Center for Automotive Diversity, Inclusion and Advancement and a former UAW member herself, said the company frequently calls upon business resource groups to educate, develop ways to drive sales and recruit.
“They’re called business resource groups, because they give back to the business, as well,” Thompson said in contrast to the “employee resource group” term. “These groups support employees who are marginalized and help them in their career. It’s a two-way street and gives back to the business. Feedback from them improves the culture.”
Ahead of the strike that begun on Sept. 15, Ford Motor Co. trained roughly 1,200 salaried employees to staff 23 parts depots in 15 states, if needed. The UAW spared the Dearborn automaker from a strike expansion the week it sent out the parts distribution workers at Stellantis and General Motors Co. after the Blue Oval agreed to concessions in the direction of the UAW’s demands around tiers, job security and wages.
These efforts by the automakers, said Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, “show just how important those dealerships are and how much they need those parts distribution centers.”
bnoble@detroitnews.com
X: @BreanaCNoble