INDIANA – United Auto Workers members at General Motors appear to have ratified a record labor contract Thursday despite some of GM’s big assembly plants voting it down in recent days.
According to the union’s online voting tracker all the votes are in and the tentative contract with GM has passed by 54.7% and 45.2 percent against. The vote is unofficial. According to the tracker the deal is ratified with 19,683 members voting “yes” and 16,274 voting “no.”
The UAW represents some 46,000 General Motors workers, and roughly 146,000 workers across all three of the Big Detroit automakers. About 36,000 members at GM facilities turned out to vote. There are about 48,000 union members who work for GM.
UAW Local 440 members at GM Bedford Casting Operations who voted:
- 234 hourly production workers voted – 101 yes, 131 no; 43.16 percent voted yes and 57 percent voted no.
- 122 hourly skilled trade workers voted – 93 yes, 29 no; 76 percent voted yes and 24 percent voted no.
The new UAW agreements with Ford and Stellantis appear to be headed for ratification by a 2-to-1 margin. Ford workers as of Thursday, 20,546 voted yes and those voting no were no 10,237. At Stellantis, the UAW reported total yes votes were at 11,528 and total no votes 5,806.
The tentative agreement with GM mirros the contract with Ford and Stellantis. The union has said the agreement grants 25% in base wage increases through April 2028, and will cumulatively raise the top wage by 33% compounded with estimated cost-of-living adjustments to over $42 an hour. The starting wage will increase by 70% compounded with estimated COLA, to over $30 an hour.
Workers at GM, hired before 2007 and voted no said felt the wage increases they were getting in the contract were less then that of newer hires. They wanted more of the 25% wage increase granted to them in the first two years of the 4.5 year contract. Some were also disappointed with pension contributions.
There was also an issue around a buyout offer. GM will offer three company special attrition programs (SAPs) from January 2024 through the life of the agreement that include a $50,000 lump sum pretax retirement incentive for traditional employees who meet the normal or early retirement eligibility requirements.
