UAW Threatens Strike Over Stellantis’ Belvidere Plant Plans

Stellantis Delays Reopening Belvidere Plant Amid UAW Tensions​

Automaker Ensures That It Hasn't Canceled Plans, But Is Delaying Them...​

Stellantis has confirmed that it will delay—though not cancel—plans to reopen its Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois. The announcement comes amid growing tensions with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, particularly following UAW President Shawn Fain’s recent video address and his remarks at the Democratic National Convention (DNC). The plant, which was slated to play a significant role in Stellantis’ electric vehicle (EV) production, is now facing an uncertain future.

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Although I'm not a fan of Fein or Carlos, both sides may have a slight point to their beef with each other. UAW wants to keep people working I can understand that. A plant that is shut down means workers out of work. I get that and I can honestly respect that. The biggest issue is this EV nonsense. The UAW and the Biden/Harris admin need to figure it out that if they want to keep things moving, stop putting so much emphasis on EVs and start pushing hybrids. Yeah, as much as we love them, we can deal without V8s for the most part but the Auto industry really needs to focus on their customers more than anything else. As it stands, the big three could drop every single V8 engine on the market and switch to hybrids and 4 & 6-cylinder turbo cars and everything would be fine. Let's look at it like this and this is from an enthusiast's stand point. Stellantis now has the Hurricane engines and in production form, the Hurricane 3.0L I-6 twin turbo H/O can produce 550hp/531lb-ft of torque without ever being tuned aftermarket. Ford's 3.5L Ecoboost V6 in a pickup truck makes 450hp and 500lb-ft of torque, a number that jumps to around 660hp/550tq in the Ford GT supercar (somewhere in that ballpark). In the Raptor, that engine makes more horsepower and torque than most 5-liter Mustang GTs up until the last four years or so and still beats even the Dark Horse GT in torque by a long shot!. The 3.0L Hurricane makes what 415hp/400tq or something like that. That's more than the 412hp/390tq the first Gen 5-Liter Coyote V8 made and an Ecoboost Mustang will stomp all over a 4.6L Mustang stock any day of the week! GM has a monster of a 2.7L Turbocharged 4-cylinder in their trucks and their 3.6L twin turbo v6 in the Blackwing cars makes 445hp and around the same in torque which is more hp and torque than some of their previous 6.0L & 6.2L V8 engines. and this is all stock. Ford had a 3.0L Ecoboost hybrid that put out somewhere around 490hp and 630lb-ft of torque in the Lincoln Aviator GT just a few short years ago. Imagine that in a four-door Mustang with AWD. ZF is making a hybrid 8-speed transmission that puts out some serious HP and torque numbers by itself so imagine what that could do behind a Hurricane-6 either S/O or H/O with a full electric driving range of anywhere between 25-35miles. Let's just think for a moment what these hybrid powertrains could be if say Dodge did something like with the new 2.0L Hurricane 4-cylinder and the Cat-1, Cat-3 and Cat-X Hurricane engines, or Ford and GM put that Hybrid 10-speed transmission behind a 350hp/350tq 2.3L Ecoboost or a 450hp or even a 660hp 3.5L Ecoboost V6 twin turbo or GM with their 445hp 3.6L twin turbo V6 with all-wheel drive systems or even that 2.7L Turbo-4. Then on top of that offer factory backed tunes, performance packs, exhaust systems, suspension upgrades, etc. If this is about reducing emissions, right here is problems solved! Opening the plant back up would put people back to work but have a better thought out plan than trying to continue pushing the EV agenda so strong. Again, I'm not saying the EVs dont have their place because honestly there needs to be a balance and having emissions free vehicles on the road isn't a terrible thing, it's actually a good thing. We need to find better ways to manufacture them this is true and better ways to charge them (SOLAR) but I think we are working towards that. I feel that it's time that more people get involved and maybe we can find ways to come to common grounds and maybe help turn the American Auto industry around. A lot of us here are super passionate about this thing and who knows, maybe something one of us says can actually help re-direct this thing into a more positive direction. One that we can all be happy with again.

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