Why factory workers getting $0 from Stellantis
UAW President Shawn Fain, UMich economist agree on who's to blame
U.S. factory workers who build Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge and Ram vehicles will get $0 in profit sharing proceeds for 2025, Stellantis reported during its earnings call on Thursday. Because there really were no profits.
That’s a sharp drop from 2024 ($3,780), 2023 ($13,860) and 2022 ($14,760).
This money is not a bonus. The dollars are part of a UAW-negotiated hourly wage.
The collective bargaining agreement negotiated by the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America earmarks $900 for each 1% of profit margin in North America. (Employee check totals reflect hours worked.)
Workers at Stellantis are feeling the consequences of a $26.3 billion net loss for 2025.
By contrast, Ford Motor Co. has announced profit-sharing checks of $6,780 (down from $10,208 a year ago). General Motors confirmed payments of $10,500 (down from $14,500 a year ago). Ford and GM pay $1,000 for every $1 billion earned in North American pre-tax profit.
‘A damn shame’
On Thursday, UAW President Shawn Fain said he wasn’t happy.
“It’s a damn shame that autoworkers continue to pay the price for horrible mismanagement at Stellantis,” Fain said in a statement to Shifting Gears.
“We sounded the alarm on disgraced CEO Carlos Tavares and have been pushing the company to stop throwing money away to Wall Street and instead invest in the plants, products, and people that make this company run. In 2024 alone, Stellantis spent $8.3 billion on Wall Street payouts. This is the same old story in America that happens all too often where the profits are being shared, but not with the people who build the product,” Fain said. “We will continue to push as a union for better management at Stellantis so autoworkers can get back to earning their fair share.”
Union negotiators focus on different forms of compensation to offset economic downturns, said Marick Masters, professor emeritus at the Mike Ilitch School of Business at Wayne State University in Detroit.
“This is one of the major reasons the UAW wanted pay increases, step increases, and COLA in the last agreement,” Masters said. “Profit sharing depends on the vagaries of the market and the strategic decisions companies make in the market. Strategic errors can cost companies a lot in terms of future profitability.”
Step increases are scheduled pay increases based on length of service and experience.
UAW leaders fought in 2023 to reinstate the cost-of-living adjustment, starting wages and top wages during the last contract negotiation. After the Detroit Three announced tentative agreements, Toyota and Hyundai and Honda announced pay raises for their non-union workers.
Stellantis execs made problems worse
While automakers globally are trying to absorb billions of dollars in new tariff costs associated with President Trump’s economic policy, as well as a shift in electrification incentives and strategy, Stellantis brings its own set of problems, said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
“Stellantis is a special case of management foolery and industry impossibility,” Gordon told Shifting Gears.
“The industry was forced to invest as many billions as possible as quickly as possible and then was forced to write most of it off when government policy shifted into reverse at 80 mph,” he said. “It’s not the fault of the companies except for Stellantis. They went through bad CEOs and bad cars.”
No question, Stellantis has been in transition. Critics would say turmoil.
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, who saw a 56% compensation spike to $39.5 million in 2023, quit in December 2024 amid corporate strategy conflict.
Heading into 2025 at Stellenatis was grim, Shifting Gears reported at the time.
“How fast can they fix this?” said a Jeep dealer who works with Stellantis dealers in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Florida.
“This year — 2025 — has been a debacle. Literally, bleeding market share left and right. The supply of inventory on our lots is ridiculous. Dealers are drowning in expenses. We finance the vehicles and have to pay interest on the vehicles to the bank,” the dealer said. “Not only are they not moving, then you get ‘lot rot’ and batteries start going dead. And this one gets a dent in it. It’s never ending so you keep throwing money at inventory that’s not moving.”
Few could have predicted that things would get so bad in 2025 that the profit-sharing for employees would wither to $0.
Not since 2010 (after 2009 bankruptcy) have times been so lean.
The company has roller-coastered from DaimlerChrysler (1998) to Chrysler LLC (2007) to Chrysler Group (2009) to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (2014) to Stellantis (2021).
Stellantis focusing ahead
On Thursday, Stellantis spokesperson Jodi Tinson said in a statement, "Following the full-year results announcement, it is clear that 2025 was a very challenging year for Stellantis, reflecting the cost of a profound and necessary business reset to correct past decisions,”
The North America results did not meet minimum thresholds defined in the 2023 UAW collective bargaining agreement for profit-sharing payments to UAW-represented employees, she said.
“As we move forward, we are confident that the decisive actions the company has already taken to put the customer at the center of everything we do, such as reintroducing the legendary HEMI® V8 engines in the Ram 1500, will support profitable growth and put us on a better path for a stronger, more successful 2026,” Tinson said.
Every spring since 2012, Detroit Three automakers have issued profit-sharing checks.
Investors like profit-sharing because it encourages union workers and management to work together to meet production schedules and reduce waste and overtime.
CEO unable to turn things around
In May 2025, Stellantis named Antonio Filosa its new CEO, after a transition period led by executive chair John Elkann. Filosa, a former Jeep CEO based in Auburn Hills, Michigan, took charge of the parent company in June.
Company documents reviewed by Reuters in mid-2025 showed that Filosa was scheduled to get $1.8 million in base pay plus bonuses in his first two years with a compensation package expected to grow toward $23 million.
He shook up his management team in October as part of a turnaround effort.
On Thursday, Filosa said in a statement that his company’s 2025 financial results “reflect the cost of over-estimating the pace of the energy transition and of the need to reset our business around our customers’ freedom to choose from the full range of electric, hybrid and internal combustion technologies.”
This year, he said, Stellantis will focus on closing “execution gaps of the past” and returning to profitable growth.
Other headaches, costs
Meanwhile, Levi & Korsinsky law in New York notified investors this week that it had begun an investigation into Stellantis concerning potential violations of the federal securities laws for not providing adequate warning of its bleak financial situation.
Unrelated and not insignificant, Stellantis is faced with the repair costs of hundreds of thousands of 2023-25 Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Grand Cherokee plug-in hybrid vehicles with fire risk, sand contamination and power-loss software problems, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
After Stellantis released its earnings on Thursday, Reuters reported that NHTSA would not seek a recall of 7.4 million 2010-2020 model year vehicles (Jeep, Ram, Dodge, Chrysler) for active head restraint systems that unexpectedly deploy. Federal investigators opened the case in 2019 amid reports of whiplash, bruising and concussions. The agency confirmed reports of 750 head injuries but concluded that serious injuries didn’t exist in people without pre-existing medical conditions. As a compromise, Stellantis agreed to offer an extended 10-year warranty for vehicles.
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Excellent reporting. This trouble with stock buybacks is endemic in corporations these days.
Not trying to sound like a disgruntled citizen, but these union workers had to be aware that the company was not making any money.
I don’t think they’re in the position to give money away. As a required 48 year veteran of a state and local government, I’m here to tell you we never get any extra money, and we’re in fact happy to see our checks every other week.
Perhaps Chrysler/Stallantis needs to steal a successful developer from one of the other automotives , just like when Lee Iacocca came to Chrysler and rescued them.
Thanks for presenting the facts!
PEACE
Gregg