UAW Strike Update: General Motors Reaches Tentative Agreement on New Contract with Union

DETROIT – An AP source said General Motors and the United Auto Workers union have reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement.

The deal follows the pattern agreed with Ford last week and Jeep maker Stellantis over the weekend.

The video in this story is from a previous report

These contracts last for four years and eight months and include 25% general salary increases and cost of living adjustments. Taken together, the wage increases amount to over 30% over the contract term of four years and eight months.

The person briefed on the matter, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly and support the deal, was expected to be announced early Monday.

This is a recent update. AP’s earlier story follows below.

DETROIT (AP) — Pressure is mounting on General Motors, the lone holdout from a strike against all three major Detroit automakers, after the United Auto Workers union reached a tentative contract agreement with Jeep maker Stellantis over the weekend.

The UAW reached a tentative agreement with Ford last week and has wasted no time hitting GM where it hurts financially as the strike enters its seventh week.

Nearly 4,000 unionized workers walked out of GM’s largest North American plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, on Saturday, hours after the deal with Stellantis was announced. They join about 14,000 GM workers already on strike at factories in Texas, Michigan and Missouri.

Spring Hill produces the engines for vehicles assembled in nine plants as far away as Mexico, including Silverado and Sierra pickups. It’s a big moneymaker for GM, adding to the company’s financial woes after workers walked off their jobs last week in Arlington, Texas, where large SUVs like the Tahoe and Suburban are made. Vehicles assembled at the Spring Hill plant that are now joining the strike include the Cadillac Lyriq, GMC Acadia and Cadillac Crossover electric SUVs.

“The Spring Hill strike is having such a significant impact on GM’s production that the company will likely calm down quickly or shut down most production,” said Erik Gordon, an economics professor at the University of Michigan. The union wants to complete negotiations with all three automakers so that “Ford and Stellantis workers don’t reject their tentative agreements because they want to see what GM workers get.”

The Stellantis deal mirrors the deal it struck with Ford last week and saves jobs at several plants, the UAW said.

Local Ford union leaders voted unanimously in Detroit on Sunday to approve this tentative contract after UAW President Shawn Fain explained its details, the union tweeted.

Explaining the details to the full membership on a later livestream, Fain joined UAW Vice President Chuck Browning in saying the deal represented a “historic turning point” for reviving union power in an America “where we’ve been left behind.” through an economy that only works for the billionaire class.”

“UAW members at Ford will receive more direct across-the-board wage increases in the next four and a half years than we have received in the last 22 years combined,” Browning said.

Fain called the deal “a turning point in the class struggle that has raged in this country for 40 years.”

The Ford-Stellantis pacts, which would run through April 30, 2028, provide for across-the-board wage increases of 25% for top workers at assembly plants, with 11% to come after the deal is ratified.

The Ford agreement restores cost-of-living adjustments that the UAW suspended in 2009 during the Great Recession.

Discussions with GM continued over the weekend.

At Stellantis, workers are paid a wage in line with their cost of living, which would represent a total increase of 33%, with top workers at assembly plants making more than $42 an hour. Top employees there now earn around $31 an hour.

Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan, said the Stellantis deal “shows that the auto companies feel like they are at the mercy of the UAW, that the UAW will not give any mercy.”

Starting salaries for new Stellantis employees will increase by 67%, including cost of living adjustments to over $30 per hour. Temporary workers will receive raises of more than 165%, while parts center workers will receive an immediate 76% raise if the contract is ratified.

As with the Ford agreement, it will take just three years for new workers to reach the top of the assembly pay scale, the union said. The union also gained the right to strike due to factory closures.

Bruce Baumhower, president of the local union at a large Stellantis Jeep factory in Toledo, Ohio, which has been on strike since September, said he expects workers to vote for the deal because of the wage increases, including the immediate 11% increase upon ratification would. “For me it is a historic agreement.”

However, Stellantis is not out of the woods yet.

Overnight, 8,200 Stellantis workers in Canada, represented by another union, Unifor, walked off their jobs. General Motors workers in Canada have already voted to ratify a three-year contract with the company.

“Negotiations between Unifor and Stellantis continue and make progress. Stay tuned for further updates,” Unifor said in a prepared statement.

The UAW began targeted strikes against all three automakers on September 15 after their contracts with the companies expired. At its peak, about 46,000 UAW workers went on strike – about a third of the 146,000 union members at all three companies.

Shares of major automakers were flat before the opening bell on Monday.