(The Center Square) – Pepsi workers in Chicago are out of a job after the company announced the closure of the only plant left in the city. Simultaneously, Illinois U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is urging Stellantis to reopen its plant in Belvidere.
State Rep. Brad Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, said Stellantis choosing to expand elsewhere and not in Illinois is a result of bad public policy. The company, which owns the Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat brands, said it will invest more than $6.1 billion into its Brazil plant.
“These manufacturers, these employers … none of this is happening by chance,” said Halbrook. “These are economic decisions that are based on the survivability of their company. Very few of these companies are shutting down, they’re just relocating to other business-friendly states or regions.”
Halbrook said state government puts its“thumb on the scale” by picking winners and losers. When talking about the over $500 million in tax credits for battery manufacturer Gotion, Halbrook said Pritzker has “poured in millions” to foreign adversaries. Gotion has links to the Chinese Communist Party.
“Our Democrat senators are now acknowledging the problem. My concern is that [Gov. J.B. Pritzker] continues to have his head in the sand, denying that any of this stuff is happening,” said Halbrook.
In a letter signed by Durbin and other Democrats, they urged Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares to honor the agreement signed with the United Auto Workers. The letter also highlights that Stellantis has admitted its growth plan hinges on shifting “industrial production to cost competitive countries.”
In Chicago, more than 100 workers were affected by the Chicago PepsiCo bottling plant closure. The union sharply criticized how PepsiCo handled the situation.
When asked if the closure of the plant is the employer’s fault, Halbrook said again it’s public policy and over regulation of business that makes it difficult to hire and afford labor in Illinois.
“The minimum wage continues to go up and it increases wages at every level. And I am not speaking against increasing wages, but when you mandate it from Springfield, that’s not market factors,” he said. “It’s artificial and causes some undue burdens on the employers in the state of Illinois.”
While speaking recently in Belvidere, Illinois, in support of autoworkers, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, said the minimum wage needs to be raised to $17 an hour.
“You know what’s happening? The corporate greed of the CEOs, they are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on anti-union consultants trying to bust unions and make it impossible to join unions. The anecdote to that is passing what we call the PRO Act,” said Sanders.
Opponents of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act say it would force employers to treat contract workers as employees, costing those businesses more money to keep those workers employed. The employer would then possibly hire fewer independent contractors, potentially costing millions of Americans their jobs.
