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“The plant reopening will definitely help this community a huge amount … all the mom-and-pop businesses will flourish,” Vassar said in an interview.
But his view on the economy at the moment? “Terrible,” he declared.
Inflation has cooled in recent months, but the preceding two-year spike has left many goods unaffordable, said the 52-year-old father of five. “Groceries are ridiculous,” he said, and gas is still “a little high.”
“Everything in general has skyrocketed,” he said. “You take your kids out to eat … every place has raised their prices.”
That split-screen view on the economy is common in this small city 70 miles northwest of Chicago, where most voters lean Republican. Residents speak of being “over the moon” and “in shock” about the planned rebirth of the 60-year-old factory, thanks to a vigorous campaign by the United Auto Workers, the Biden administration and the state of Illinois. But they also express extreme grumpiness about the price of gas, utilities and rotisserie chicken.
The conflicting attitudes help explain the uphill climb President Biden faces as he tries to convince voters that his economic leadership is working. Many signs point to a healthy economy: GDP is rising, unemployment is at longtime lows, and wages are finally outpacing inflation. The administration has helped deliver tens of billions of dollars to rebuild U.S. manufacturing and infrastructure in places like Belvidere in a long-term bet on jobs, economic growth and global competitiveness. But for many Americans, the pinch of pricier everyday goods outweighs other economic indicators.
“It’s two different snapshots. I think any time you go and open your wallet, whether it be at the grocery store or whether it be at the gas station … things, products, they cost more,” Belvidere Mayor Clint Morris said in an interview. “Now, does that have any bearing on whether or not it’s a great thing that we have Stellantis and all this other manufacturing opening up? No, it doesn’t. But it’s a hard one to square, right?”
The dilemma has hurt Biden’s performance in recent polls, with just 30 percent of voters approving of his handling of the economy in a late September Washington Post-ABC News poll — the lowest reading of his presidency.
Jared Bernstein, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said the administration is laser-focused on lowering prices for Americans — even as it aims to keep unemployment low and boost investment in manufacturing and infrastructure.
Inflation is down by about two-thirds from its peak last summer, and gas has dropped to about $3.25 a gallon from a peak of $5.00 last year, he noted. “We’re seeing real progress, but we’ve got more work to do,” Bernstein said in an interview, listing efforts including combating high pharmaceutical prices and the junk fees companies charge consumers. “We are not looking at these prices and sitting on our hands and saying we’re done, by a long shot.”
The Stellantis factory’s planned reopening marks a rare reversal of the plant closings that have plagued many U.S. communities for decades. Just 40 miles north of Belvidere, the 2008 death of a General Motors factory left Janesville, Wis., reeling. Several thousand workers lost jobs as the factory cut shifts and finally closed. In 2018, the plant was bulldozed.
The United Auto Workers were determined not to let Belvidere meet the same fate and pushed hard in contract talks for the factory’s reopening. Biden threw his weight behind their cause, making personal appeals to Stellantis and even joining a UAW picket line.
That push was part of the president’s broad commitment to revitalize neglected factory communities, administration officials say. Biden-backed subsidies for electric vehicle manufacturers and buyers are supporting the retooling of Ford and General Motors factories in the Detroit area. And incentives provided by the Inflation Reduction Act are helping spur construction of a $760 million battery manufacturing facility in Weirton, W.Va., on the site of a former steel mill.
The projects come amid a general rebound of U.S. manufacturing, fueled in part by billions of dollars of federal subsidies and tax breaks enacted in legislation championed by the Biden administration and congressional Democrats. Private investment in U.S. factories reached almost $575 billion in the first nine months of this year — more than double the $240 billion over the same period in 2019, federal data show. Investment in industrial equipment grew to $925 billion, from $790 billion in 2019.
Even beyond the Stellantis projects, Belvidere is enjoying a mini investment boom. Walmart and General Mills are spending more than $1.2 billion to build large distribution hubs in town, drawn by Belvidere’s proximity to Interstate 90. Victor Hernandez, owner of Taqueria El Molcajete on Belvidere’s historic State Street, said he’s hoping to get delivery deals to send lunch to the construction crews.
One factor tempering public enthusiasm: Many of the Stellantis jobs won’t appear for another year or more. The company must first build the battery factory and retool the old plant for production of a new pickup truck. Electric, hybrid and gas-powered versions of the vehicle are scheduled to start rolling off the lines in late 2026, according to the UAW. Battery production is set for 2028. The jobs will probably begin well before manufacturing starts, but exactly when isn’t clear.
When he heard about the reopening, Robert Stacy, another laid-off worker, said he felt “shock, happiness, and then a little disappointed finding out that it was going to take so long.” He is grateful for the plant’s revival but said he felt the economy was better under Trump. “My 401(k) was doing great, and gas was cheaper,” Stacy said, adding that he also preferred Trump for noneconomic reasons, including Second Amendment issues.
Stellantis’s laid-off workers have a big cushion while they await the new jobs. The UAW fought for a provision in their new contract that requires Stellantis to pay the workers unemployment benefits until the new jobs appear. Together with state benefits, that pay will equal 74 percent of their normal wages.
Some jobs will appear soon. Vassar and Stacy said they’re hoping to nab one of the 270 positions expected to open in the coming weeks in an auto-parts distribution center Stellantis is establishing in Belvidere.
For some, news of the reopening hasn’t yet registered. Working the lunch shift at a Middle Eastern restaurant near the idled plant, manager Laith Abuhashish said he hadn’t heard that the factory planned to restart. He was glad to learn about it, given that his business fell by about a third after Stellantis workers stopped coming by for lunch, which forced him to lay off two workers.
That experience, plus a falloff in business from truckers and the rising cost of living, left him feeling the economy is in “real bad” shape, he said. “There’s no more middle class any more. Either you’re rich or you’re poor.” Abuhashish said he voted for Biden last time but plans to vote for Trump if he is a candidate in the next election.
Michele Walters, a bartender at the Buchanan Street Pub, said she also plans to vote for Trump. Her tips have recovered somewhat from the covid downturn, but grocery prices are “ridiculous,” she said.
“I used to be able to go to Walmart and buy a rotisserie chicken for $2.99. I go in there now, and it’s $7.98. And to top it all off, it’s smaller. It’s like they’re literally starving these chickens,” she said as some of her regulars trickled in for a pool tournament.
The outlook is more positive at the union hall, where the local UAW president, Matt Frantzen, is making plans to eventually put more than 1,000 laid-off people back to work. Some moved away to take jobs at Stellantis factories out of state and are now looking forward to coming back, Frantzen said. Many remain local and are “chomping at the bit to get back to work,” he added.
Since the new contract was reached, “people have been able to take a breath [and] relax, and the atmosphere is just different throughout the whole community,” he said.
He gave the union top credit for rescuing the factory but said Biden deserves praise, too. During a visit to Chicago last summer, the president went out of his way to meet with Frantzen and ask what he could do to help Belvidere, the local UAW chief said. By that time, the administration was already encouraging Stellantis to apply for federal funds to repurpose the factory for the EV era, a campaign the White House stepped up over the summer.
“I don’t think you’re ever going to change some of these Republicans,” Frantzen said of local residents who don’t acknowledge Biden’s efforts. “But as far as the Democrats, I think it reinvigorated them.”
Joey Szakalski, vice president of the union local, was previously a forklift driver for Stellantis. He moved to Belvidere in 2006, after his former factory in Syracuse, N.Y., closed. The area around that factory is now a ghost town, he said, with boarded-up buildings and weeds growing through parking lots.
The Belvidere reopening plan has “saved the community,” he said, adding that Biden was a “big part” of the victory.
“It’s awful,” Szakalski said. “There isn’t anything that don’t cost more today than it did not too long ago.”
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