Mobis workers at Toledo Assembly Complex could strike as contract expires Tuesday night

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Part of the Toledo Assembly Complex could shut down once again if a deal is not reached before midnight Tuesday. Mobis North America is a key supplier to the facility, providing parts for the Jeep Gladiator. Their contract expires at 11:59 tonight.

So what does that mean for the workers?

It’s been about two weeks since the UAW reached tentative new contract deals with the Big Three, which brought Jeep and Mobis workers back to the assembly lines. But in a matter of hours, some Mobis employees may be out of work again.

After 44 days on the picket line, workers at the Toledo Jeep plant and Mobis North America are back on the assembly lines. But for Mobis employees, that may not last into Wednesday.

“We can’t reach an agreement with them,” Bruce Baumhower, UAW Local 12 president said. “The contract expires tonight. We’ve applied for strike authorization from the international union and they granted that. So if we don’t have an agreement, we’ll be on strike at midnight tonight.”

Mobis supplies parts for gladiators. UAW union leaders tell 13 Action News the Toledo Assembly Complex makes 320 gladiators a day between two shifts. Without the parts, there’s no work.

“Mobis feeds the gladiator side, not the wrangler side, so it’ll shut that side down. It’s kind of crazy to think about it, that Chrysler had Mobis shut down for the last six weeks because they were on strike and Mobis feeds them. Along with, by the way, 15 other Local 12 plants that were shut down during the Chrysler strike and now it’s role reversal -- now Mobis will be on strike and it’ll shut half the Jeep plant down,” Baumhower said.

If Mobis strikes, Stellantis employees working on the gladiator line will be laid off and get unemployment.

“We’ll struggle through it,” Baumhower said. “My hope is that somehow tonight we get this worked out before we have to strike. We don’t ever want to strike, our members really never make up the money that they lost if it’s a long strike. We really want a contract and we’re urging Mobis to understand that and get a contract.”

Baumhower tells 13 Action News if there is no contract reached by midnight, they are prepared to strike. This would be the first time UAW Local 12 Mobis workers have gone on strike.

Meantime, UAW Local 12 members are gearing up to vote on a new tentative deal with Stellantis on Wednesday. On Tuesday, UAW Local 14 members from GM Toledo Propulsion Systems rejected the tentative deal with General Motors.

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