GM’s contract deal with UAW faces surprisingly fierce opposition

A vote by the United Automobile Workers union on a tentative contract agreement with General Motors that provides for record wage increases was met with unexpectedly strong resistance from veteran workers.

The vote among most union members has been completed and the final result, which was known on Thursday evening, will most likely be decided by a small margin. A majority of workers at several major factories in Michigan, Indiana and Tennessee rejected the contract, although union members at a major sporting goods company factory in Arlington, Texas, voted in favor.

GM, Ford Motor and Stellantis agreed to similar contracts with the union after UAW members went on strike at select factories and warehouses. Workers at the first three factories walked off their jobs on September 15 and remained on strike for more than 40 days. It was the first time the union has hit all three automakers at the same time, although it did not close all of any company’s plants.

The deal appears headed for ratification at Ford and Stellantis, the maker of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram vehicles, by comfortable margins, according to figures the UAW published online.

At GM, many veteran employees have opposed the contract because they want the company to contribute more money to pension plans and health care costs for retirees.

“I’ve heard from some traditional workers that there wasn’t enough in it for them,” said David Green, director of the UAW Region 2B, which includes Ohio, Indiana and a small part of Michigan. “Health care after retirement is a problem for some people. For some people that is the pension contributions.”

Mr Green himself thinks the contract represents a major victory for union members. “This is the best contract I’ve seen since I started in 1989,” he said. “So I was happy with it.”

General Motors declined to comment on the contract vote.

The preliminary contract increases the top salary by 25 percent, from $32 to more than $40 over a period of four and a half years. According to UAW officials, the increase is more than the combined wage increases the union has achieved over the past 22 years.

Newer employees who are lower on the pay scale will see larger increases that move them into the new top pay range. And newly hired workers will see their hourly wages double.

The agreement also provides for cost-of-living adjustments that will increase wages if inflation persists, as well as higher corporate contributions to pensions and pension plans, more paid time off and the ability to strike like a factory during the term of the government Will be closed. contract.

To be ratified, the agreement must receive a simple majority. More than 46,000 UAW employees work at GM, although it is unlikely that all of them will return their ballots. More than 14,000 company employees took part in the targeted strikes.

From Wednesday afternoon an online voting overview that the union maintains showed that just over 54 percent of votes were in favor of the contract, but that number did not include the figures of some major power stations.

If the tentative agreement is voted down, it would be a major setback for UAW President Shawn Fain, who was elected this year and vowed to take a more aggressive approach to contract talks in hopes of securing significant pay increases and some of to cancel the agreements made. the concessions accepted by the union in previous contracts.

He seemed to make that happen in what was widely considered a recording contract. President Biden, who joined striking workers on the picket line at a GM site in Belleville, Michigan, in September, praised Mr. Fain’s efforts. The president joined Mr. Fain last week at a factory in Belvidere, Illinois, which Stellantis agreed to keep open after production halted this year.

“I don’t think it takes the shine off Shawn Fain that much because of a close ratification vote,” said Arthur Wheaton, director of labor studies at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. “It just means expectations were high, and if he hadn’t delivered as much as he did, it wouldn’t have worked out.”

After the contracts with the three Detroit automakers are ratified, Mr. Fain hopes to try to organize workers at non-union factories in the South owned by Toyota, Honda and other foreign automakers, and at the non-union plants that Tesla operates in California and Texas.

Since the terms of the UAW agreements were announced, some of these companies have increased wages for factory workers. Toyota has told workers it will increase hourly rates by 9 percent in January. Honda and Hyundai will increase wages by 11 percent and 14 percent next year. Hyundai wants to increase wages by 25 percent by 2028.

“Everyone at these companies should say, ‘Thank you, UAW,’” Mr. Wheaton said. “These increases would not have happened without the new UAW contract.”