President Joe Biden speaks to United Auto Workers Local 1268 members and others on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023, at the Community Building Complex of Boone County in downtown Belvidere. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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BELVIDERE — President Joe Biden walked into the Community Building Complex of Boone County on Thursday and exchanged his navy suit jacket for a red T-shirt that read “We are Belvidere” on the back.

The shirt, which United Auto Workers Local 1268 members have worn during rallies here, was handed to him by Matt Frantzen, president of UAW Local 1268.

On Thursday, Biden donned it as part of an event celebrating a tentative deal with Stellantis that will lead to a nearly $5 billion investment in Bevidere. That plan calls for reopening the Belvidere Assembly Plant as a parts distribution center, building a new assembly plant for a mid-sized pickup truck and building a new electric vehicle battery plant.

“This opening of Belvidere again is a gigantic deal as far as I’m concerned,” Biden said.

Biden, who is the first sitting U.S. president to visit the region since Ronald Reagan spoke in Dixon in 1984, delivered a roughly 23-minute speech before a few hundred UAW members, local dignitaries and other guests in the limited-attendance event. He told them that he understands the hardship that comes with auto plant closures, which he has seen in his home state of Delaware.

He arrived here on the same day that local union members are voting whether to ratify the contract with Stellantis. Some attendees were wearing “I voted” stickers to the event.

Dawn Simms, a 24-year assembly worker at Belvidere, stood by UAW National President Shawn Fain’s side on stage Thursday and said she voted in favor of the new contract.

“This is our home and we deserve to stay here,” said Simms, a third-generation Belvidere Assembly Plant worker. “This contract is a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. It makes me proud that we all stuck together at Local 1268.”

Biden said that the deal would lead to better wages for all workers in America. He noted that Toyota just announced it would increase wages, too.

“It’s a bigger thing I think than even you all realize,” Biden said. “You’re changing the face of the country economically.”

President Joe Biden speaks Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023, to United Auto Workers Local 1268 and other guest at the Community Building Complex of Boone County in Belvidere. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

Biden also said that workers sacrificed by agreeing to numerous cuts to help automakers survive the 2008 financial crisis. Now, they deserve to be rewarded.

“Now, the auto companies are doing incredibly well. So autoworkers should be doing incredibly well, as well,” Biden said. “You saved the auto industry.”

Frantzen, who had the role of introducing the president at Thursday’s event, had met with Biden in June to discuss the importance of the Belvidere Assembly Plant for the region.

“He told me how critical it was to get that plant up and online again,” Biden said.”So I told my team, make Stellantis know Belvidere’s a priority, and I got on the phone and let them know personally I thought it was a priority.”

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Workers here said they were appreciative of Biden for working on their behalf after the plant was idled at the end of February, leaving roughly 1,200 without jobs.

“We’re a small town, working-class people … to know that the president of the United States had paid attention, could see us here and see what effect this was having on this community, on the working class people of America, was great to know,” said Monica Sago of Rockford, who has worked at the Belvidere Assembly Plant for 29 years. “Our community — everyone from our local president Matt Frantzen all the way up to the president of the United States — worked so hard for small town America. It’s humbling to know so many people worked so hard.”

Phoshawnda Starks of Rockford has spent 17 years at the Belvidere Assembly Plant and is a third-generation employee. She said she had faith the plant would reopen.

“Overwhelming, amazing that he took the time out to come to little Belvidere to speak to us,” she said of Biden’s visit. “For him to see that it was a necessity to save the plant, it means a lot.”

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The president’s speech was briefly interrupted by a woman who shouted for him to call for a cease-fire in Gaza. Similar demonstrations were held outside the Community Center, and others waved flags in support of former President Donald Trump.

Inside, many workers wore red “We are Belvidere” shirts that matched what the president put on. They could get back to work on a yet-to-be-named midsized truck as soon as 2027, with a new battery plant potentially launching in 2028. Combined there would be roughly 3,000 jobs.

The tentative deal, which was reached after a 45-day strike, includes 30% increase in wages. Starting wages will be $30 an hour by 2028, Fain said.

“Bigger pay increases over the next four and a half years than the last 22 years combined,” Biden said.

Fain said the UAW ensured that “these jobs can’t disappear at the whim of the company” because workers won the right to strike over closings.

“That means if they come at us again, we’ll bring the full force of the UAW to protect those jobs, to protect our families, and to protect our communities just like we did here in Belvidere,” he said. “The workers run the economy, and we the workers have the power to shut the economy down if it doesn’t work for the working class.”

UAW Local 1268 President Matt Frantzen hands President Joe Biden a “We are Belvidere” T-shirt on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023, before Biden delivered remarks at the Community Complex of Boone County in Belvidere. (Photo by Susan Moran/Special to the Rock River Current)

Members of other unions, including leaders of the local AFSCME Council, also attended Thursday’s event to support the UAW.

“I just think what happened was horrible with it being shut down,” said Latoya Johnson, a direct support professional and part of local AFSCME leadership. “I have a couple of neighbors who work for Chrysler and they were out of work for a very long time. I’ve seen some of them their house go into foreclosure.”

Gov. JB Pritzker said Thursday’s celebration was the culmination of several months of work from state, local and federal officials.

Nearly two years ago Pritzker signed a bill designed to incentivize electric vehicle or electric vehicle component production in Illinois. The law provides tax credits ranging from 75% to 100% of income tax withheld for creating new jobs or 25% to 50% for retaining employees. The state later created a $400 million “closing fund” to be spent ensuring Stellantis rebuilt here.

“While this tentative agreement is an immense reason to celebrate, our work is not done,” Pritzker said. “I’m laser-focused on ensuring the Belvidere Assembly Plant and its adjoining battery plant qualify for every federal incentive possible and that Stellantis makes good on its commitment to Belvidere.”

Joseph Fletcher, who started with the company in Detroit 24 years ago, said the president’s visit here shows the significance of the plant and community. He said the decision to include electric vehicle components is the right move for the future, even if there is resistance to it now.

“One thing you can’t dismiss is electric vehicles are coming,” said Fletcher, who worked in Belvidere for 17 years. “Nobody wanted to give up their horses at first, but you couldn’t stop the gasoline vehicles from coming, and that’s the same way with electric vehicles.”

More photos: Joe Biden visits Belvidere to tour potential UAW contract and assembly plant reopening

Retiree Larry Schendel, who spent 38 years with the company, said he left the Community Center Complex feeling optimistic for the community.

“It’s what we always needed to have support coming down from Washington to help support the average workers in the plant,” Schendel said.  “We’ve had many years where we’ve been neglected.” 

For many Belvidere workers, it was a bright spot after nearly a year of uncertainty that started when they learned in December that the plant would be idled indefinitely.

“No one really knew what we were going to have to do. If we were going to get a product, if we weren’t. If we were going to have to move somewhere else and uproot our families,” said Kim McCown, a Belvidere native who has worked at the plant for 24 years. “It’s a big weight off a lot of people’s shoulders.”

“I’m looking forward to going back to work.”

Watch the full speech

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas