General Motors (GM) and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union have reached a tentative agreement, people familiar with the matter told The Epoch Times, effectively bringing to an end the first simultaneous strike against the Big Three automakers, which cost the U.S. auto industry hundreds of millions of dollars.
Details of the deal weren’t immediately available; GM officials declined to comment and the autoworkers’ union didn’t immediately respond to requests for further information. However, sources familiar with the talks said the terms of the agreement are similar to the ones the union reached with Ford and Stellantis, including a 25 percent pay increase.
GM’s latest officially disclosed offer, which was made public on Oct. 20, involved a 23 percent general wage increase, which over the life of the four-year contract would amount to a 25 percent compounded wage boost. There was also a ratification bonus for all of GM’s 46,000 or so UAW members, who still need to approve the deal.
The union’s talks with GM stalled on Oct. 28 because of issues such as pension and how fast temporary workers would get permanent work, according to sources familiar with the matter. As those talks broke down on Oct. 28, UAW expanded its strike to include a walkout at a plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, which is GM’s largest in North America.
At the time, GM said in a statement that it was “disappointed” in the union’s decision to target the Spring Hill facility, but vowed to continue to bargain “in good faith” to bring a quick end to the six-week strike, which now appears to be all but officially over.
The deal with GM follows agreements reached in the past few days by the union with Ford and Stellantis—the parent company of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram—in what experts say are significant victories for auto workers, who won record wage and benefit increases.
“With this agreement, we are going from defense to offense,” UAW President Shawn Fain said on Oct. 28, in announcing the deal with Stellantis.
“We are going from the managed decline of the American working class to a new era of auto manufacturing.”
President Joe Biden, who has touted himself as pro-union, praised what he called “a historic agreement” to end the strike at Stellantis, according to a statement released on Oct. 28.
Asked on Oct. 30 what he thought about the speculated deal with GM, he said, “I think it’s great.”
More Details
The three tentative pacts are a win for the union’s precedent-breaking strategy of targeting all three Detroit automakers at the same time in its bid to secure record-setting pay and benefit gains.Mr. Fain must now get the contracts ratified by rank-and-file UAW members. That process began on Oct. 29 as Mr. Fain met with leaders of Ford-UAW local unions.
After regional meetings to walk through the tentative agreement with local leaders, the final step is for union locals to hold informational meetings to discuss the tentative deal and set ratification votes, according to the UAW.
In this series of contract talks, the UAW bargained with all three automakers at the same time, using the threat of strikes at key factories to accelerate a bidding war among the companies.
In a bid to hoard strike funds and give union negotiators maximum flexibility to win a record contract, Mr. Fain kept most UAW members working in what he called a stand-up strike, which expanded the job action slowly to new plants when union leaders determined that progress was stalling and more leverage was needed.
Mr. Fain also repeatedly accused the Detroit Three automakers of enriching executives and investors while neglecting workers, saying the UAW’s success would help blue-collar workers across the country.
The UAW achieved substantial gains in pay and retirement benefits, and it rolled back concessions on other issues it agreed to in contracts over the past 15 years.
The automakers argued that the UAW’s demands would significantly raise costs and put them at a disadvantage compared with electric vehicle leader Tesla and foreign brands such as Toyota, which are non-unionized.
The three automakers told The Epoch Times in earlier emailed statements that they wanted to reach deals that balanced the concerns of employees and the company’s respective visions for the future, which includes an industry-wide shift to electric models that have fewer parts and require less labor.
Both GM and Ford recently said they would slow their EV buildouts as demand for those vehicles has slowed.
About a week ago, GM said in an earnings call that it had lost $800 million in the strike and was poised to lose another $200 million each week thereafter if the walkouts continued.
