Belvidere, Illinois goes from loser to winner with idled Stellantis plant reopening

BELVIDERE, Ill. (CBS) — The year 2023 was a big one for labor – actors, pilots, delivery drivers, and maybe most of all, autoworkers.

By some accounts, no place in history has benefited from a new contract between the Big Three auto companies and the United Auto Workers than Belvidere, Illinois – about an hour and a half northwest of Chicago. Belvidere is a place that went from being the biggest labor loser to the biggest winner.

Belvidere, Illinois is the type of place where a human actually answers the phone at City Hall. It’s the type of place where Mayor Clint Morris has a Holy Bible on his desk, the Lord is his Shepherd, and professional wrestler Ric Flair is his spirit animal.

Mayor Morris is an independent, who emphasizes that didn’t take any outside money for his campaign. He agreed that this puts him on about an island of one in Illinois politics.

“And of course, with any money that anybody takes, there’s a certain amount of obligation,” said Morris, “and I don’t think anybody is a philanthropist that contacts elected officials, I don’t believe that.”

He won – and dealt with a disaster shortly into his first term.

“Well, I received a call first from Stellantis, their director of governmental affairs out of Washington, D.C., had called me and informed me that they were going to be, quote, ‘Idling the plant,’” said Morris, “and about the same time, actually, my other phone rang, and it was the governor’s office – Governor Pritzker’s office.”

Chrysler parent company Stellantis’ Belvidere Assembly Plant was indefinitely idled at the end of February of last year. More than 1,000 would be out of work.

The news in Belvidere, the City of Murals, was like bucket of paint tossed upon Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night.”

It was a gut punch for plant veteran Deanna Viel.

“This is my survival for me and my three boys,” Viel said. “It’s a lot of emotion. First, you had your whole world crash down.  Then, we had the big, ‘OK, we’re going to make it.”

In late October, the announcement came down that the Belvidere plant would reopen after the UAW and Stellantis came to an agreement.

“We are one of the only plants that ever came out of being shut down to be brought back,” Viel said. “So it’s a big thing.”

She took a picture when President Joe Biden came to Belvidere.

With the new UAW contract, there was more news besides the plant reopening.

“We’re going to have a $100 million investment in a Mopar distribution site here, and also a battery facility,” said Mayor Morris.

The mayor himself agreed that he had never heard of a turnaround quite like what Belvidere experienced.

“It is exceptional. It’s the one singular story,” said University of Illinois professor Dr. Robert Bruno, who is also an industry expert and author.” It is truly the lone case in American economic and labor history.”

Nobody knows exactly what went down in the meetings, but Belvidere is strategically located – rail, interstate, on the river, dependable power, good workforce.

So who made the reopening happen?

“The workers made that happen,” said Bruno. “Never before has the UAW, through its collective bargaining process, been able to reopen a facility, pour millions of dollars into the facility and create thousands of jobs.”

Back to Ric Flair, the professional wrestler whose image graces Mayor Morris’ office. It came from his brother, Cliff, and Morris is quick to note that Flair is a winner.

“That’s how I look at this at Belvedere and what we have in the future,” said Mayor Morris. “Not only did we get a reprieve – our future’s a lot brighter here.”

Viel, the worker CBS 2 spoke with, hopes to also have a degree by the time she returns to work – in HR. 

Meanwhile, the new UAW contract could bring more than 3,000 jobs to Belvidere, and billions in investment. Whispers are they’ll be making an EV, and potentially a hybrid version of a mid-size Ram pickup.