- Big Three UAW workers braces for payouts cut by $3,000 to $5,000 due to tariff-related losses.
- With profit margins in North America down 3.4% in H1, Stellantis may not pay anything at all.
- UAW leadership’s call for worker protections and federal support has so far gone unanswered.
United Auto Workers (UAW) workers at Ford, Stellantis, and General Motors are in for a rough end of the year. Tariffs imposed by the Trump administration have cost automakers billions already. It’s no surprise that those costs are going to end up getting paid by American consumers. What’s more surprising is that UAW members are going to lose out on thousands of dollars directly.
More: UAW President Calls For Tougher Import Tariffs, Insists Carmakers Can Afford It
Every year, UAW members get profit-sharing checks from their employers. Payouts have reached record highs over the last few years, but that streak is ending. Last year, the Big Three handed out checks valued at over $10,000.
Steep Declines in Profit-Sharing
At the end of this year, that figure will almost certainly be $3,000-$5,000 less. Ford workers could see payments dip 27 to 36 percent. GM workers could lose 31 to 40 percent of their profit-sharing pay.
Stellantis workers are in an even worse situation as the company only has to pay profit-sharing checks when North American profit margins are 2 percent or higher. During the first half of the year, it registered a margin of -3.4 percent. In effect, it might not pay out anything if that keeps up, which is what Stellantis expects.
The company has already spent $380 million on tariffs in the first six months of the year, and it expects to pay even more in the second half.
A Key Metric for Workers and Industry Health
“For auto workers that are expecting profit-sharing checks at the end of the year, tariff policy is an unambiguous whack out of their year-end bonus,” Patrick Anderson, CEO of Anderson Economic Group, told Auto News.
He added that these checks have become a meaningful measure of both individual compensation and broader industry performance.
“It’s been an important mechanism that makes it clear to workers as well as to management that they’ll do better if people are buying the cars and if the company’s making money,” Anderson said. “The size of the profit-sharing check has now become one of the most important metrics for auto workers, and to some degree, an indicator of the health of the auto industry.”
Contradictions in Policy and Impact
Importantly, all of this comes after UAW President Shawn Fain commended President Donald Trump in March for “stepping up to end the free trade disaster that has devastated working class communities for decades.” At the same time, he demanded that automakers absorb the cost of tariffs without passing them on to consumers.
He went as far as to say that “Workers must be held harmless during any disruption that accompanies the reshoring process, with financial support from the federal government if necessary.” It sure doesn’t look like any of that is going to happen on any level at this point.
