James Brasher, a 57-year-old member of the United Auto Workers (UAW), fell to his death at the Center Line, Michigan Stellantis facility on August 1 while working as a laborer on a renovation project connected to the monopoly’s consolidation and automation plans.
According to the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA), Brasher was working on the facility’s second floor “discarding decommissioned equipment through a roll-up door into a trash bin located on the ground below.” MIOSHA stated that Brasher “fell approximately 25 feet into the bin,” dying from head trauma.
Brasher was a member of the United Auto Workers (UAW) for over 30 years, and was working in Stellantis’s Mopar division, which manufactures car parts. The union stated they are investigating the death but have not released any information as of August 14.
The facility Brasher worked in was recently sold by Stellantis as part of an effort to consolidate four Mopar facilities into a $388 million automated “Megahub” in Detroit, a merger the UAW warned would cost hundreds of jobs. Amid this consolidation effort, Stellantis has carried out waves of wider lay-offs against thousands of workers in the US since 2022.
The UAW waged a “Stand Up Strike” against the “Big Three” US auto monopolies (Ford, General Motors, Stellantis) in 2023 demanding wage increases and the right to strike over plant closures. The UAW bureaucracy called on certain locals to strike one by one instead of initiating the strike at once across the Big Three, to preserve the monopolies’ profits. The UAW bureaucracy then called off the strike when tentative agreements were reached, and imposed a sell-out contract that conceded to the Mopar merger.
This is the third Stellantis worker killed in a workplace accident in two years. Antonio Gaston, 53, was killed at the Toledo Assembly Complex in August 2024, and Ronald Adams, 63, was killed at the monopoly’s Dundee Engine Plant in Michigan in April 2025.
A friend of Brasher has set up a GoFundMe fundraiser that can be accessed here to support Brasher’s widow as she deals with a medical condition and his funeral bills.
Stellantis saw a $22.3 billion net loss in 2025 and has seen falling profits since 2023 as manufacturing electric vehicles fell short of demand projections.
Image: James Brasher (left). Credit: “Help Support Karyn Brasher After the Tragic Loss of James” GoFundMe fundraiser started by Sheryl Miles.
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