600 workers at Toledo Jeep plant suppliers qualify for UAW strike pay

Rudy Schork

UAW picketing began Friday at the Toledo Supplier Park.

About 600 workers at two suppliers located on site at the Stellantis Jeep plant in Ohio where assembly workers went on strike last week will get $500 in weekly pay even though their employers aren’t on strike.

The suppliers are KUKA Toledo Production Operations, which produces the bodies-in-white for Jeep Wranglers and Gladiators, and chassis maker Mobis.

The Toledo Assembly Complex is one of three plants the UAW chose last week for the first round of its “stand-up strike” against the Detroit 3 after the union was unable to agree on new contracts with the companies. General Motors’ Wentzville Assembly plant in Missouri and Ford Motor Co.’s Michigan Assembly Plant near Detroit also are on strike.

Like Stellantis’ striking workers in Toledo, employees of KUKA and Mobis are represented by UAW Local 12. The two companies aren’t the only suppliers that have been affected by the Toledo strike, but they’re unique because of their location within the plant complex.

“The difference between Kuka and Mobis is they’re in the Jeep plant; they’re not on strike,” Local 12 President Bruce Baumhower told Automotive News. “But international is paying them strike pay. They can’t strike, they can’t picket, they can’t do anything because they’re not Chrysler employees.”

If there are layoffs at other nearby Jeep suppliers, Baumhower said affected workers can get state unemployment benefits. These suppliers provide components such as axles and instrument panels and perform parts sequencing.

The Toledo Blade reported on the two suppliers’s workers being made eligible for strike pay Monday. The newspaper said some KUKA workers planned to apply for unemployment benefits rather than strike pay because they can make more.

It said a worker without dependents who makes just under $32 per hour — the top of KUKA’s wage scale — likely would get around $561 per week from unemployment, or $635 if they have dependents, according to an unemployment estimator chart from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

Dana Inc. also has an axle plant in Toledo that supplies the Jeep plant and another plant in Napoleon, Ohio, that supplies part for the Ford Bronco and Ranger at Michigan Assembly.

The Blade reported that the parking lot of Dana’s Toledo Driveline plant, which employs 770 people, was nearly filled with cars Monday, four days into the UAW’s strike against the Detroit 3. That means production likely was still going on,though the paper reported that the plant was expected to be shut down soon as a result of the strike.

A spokesman for Dana could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday by Automotive News.