Biden To Visit Illinois, Meet With UAW Workers In Belvidere

BELVIDERE, IL ­—President Joe Biden will visit Illinois on Thursday, meeting with auto workers at the Stellantis plant that will reopen as part of a recent agreement struck between union workers at the automaker.

Biden will tour the plant on Thursday along with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and UAW President Shawn Fain.

The recent deal ended a 45-day auto workers strike and breathes life back into the Belvidere plant, which had been shuttered. Pritzker said that reopening the plant will bring thousands of new jobs to the region. The automaker is also planning on opening a plant that produces batteries for electric cars in the area.

Biden made it a mission to cultivate a personal relationship with Fain, inviting him to a private Oval Office meeting on July 19 and calling him last week to wish him a happy 55th birthday, the Associated Press reported. The UAW has yet to endorse Biden as members have yet to fully approve the contracts, making the union one of the major holdouts as other labor organizations have backed the Democratic president.

Stellantis officials recently announced that the company will invest $4.8 billion in the plant, which produces Chrysler, Dodge RAM, and Jeep vehicles. As part of the investment, the company plans to invest $100 million in a mega-hub parts distribution center in Belvidere as well.

The plant closed in February when 1,200 people were laid off.

The company is planning to refurbish the existing Belvidere plant as a parts distribution center starting in 2024, UAW officials said, according to the Rockford Register Star. In addition, Stellantis is planning to build a $3.2 billion "joint venture" battery production facility that will begin operations in 2028 in Belvidere.

There also are plans to invest $1.5 billion to build a second new facility in Belvidere to produce as many as 100,000 vehicles a year of an unnamed mid-size truck starting in 2027, the newspaper reported.

Biden will arrive in the region by flying into the Chicago Rockford International Airport on Thursday.

The Associated Press contributed reporting