UAW deal with GM losing among production workers after 3 big plants vote no

General Motors production workers are narrowly voting against the automaker's tentative contract agreement with the UAW after another large assembly plant rejected the deal.

With more than 17,000 votes in out of a possible 46,000, 51 percent of production workers are against the proposed contract, as are 37 percent of skilled trades workers. Overall, the deal is still passing by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent.

Workers at GM's Lansing Delta Township plant in Michigan also voted against the deal, according to results posted Tuesday afternoon by UAW Local 602. The actual vote count from that plant was not immediately released, but the local said only 37 percent of production workers voted yes, while 60 percent of skilled trades workers did.

The union can declare the agreement ratified if it's supported by a majority of total votes, though in past negotiations it has revisited specific issues when a deal has failed among skilled trades workers. Production workers significantly outnumber skilled trades and rarely vote less favorably on contracts.

Voting has not finished at other large plants in Michigan, Texas, Indiana and Missouri.

More than two-thirds of workers who voted at GM's plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., were opposed, the UAW said Tuesday. Only about 31 percent of production workers and 44 percent of skilled trades workers at UAW Local 1853 voted in favor, according to results posted by the union.

Meanwhile, Spring Hill employees of GM Subsystems LLC, who would get some of the proposed contract's largest raises, supported the deal by a margin of 90 percent to 10 percent, according to a Local 1853 Facebook page.

The rejection by Spring Hill comes after workers at GM's pickup assembly plant in Flint, Mich., voted against the deal by a small margin.

The agreement was supported by a majority of workers at GM plants in Kansas City, Kan., and Detroit and Orion Township, Mich. However, the margin among production workers at the Kansas plant, known as Fairfax Assembly, was just six votes.

The presidents of the locals in Tennessee and Kansas could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday. GM declined to comment on the ratification votes.

The Spring Hill plant was the last GM factory added to the union's 46-day strike against the automaker. Workers at Fairfax were temporarily laid off because of a shortage of stampings made at a plant on strike in Missouri. The Fairfax plant is slated to receive $391 million in new investment for future electric vehicle production under the tentative deal.

Workers at parts distribution centers, who would be paid higher production wages if the deal is ratified, have largely supported the tentative agreement, based on results shared publicly by the UAW.

The tentative deal increases top wages by 25 percent over the next four and a half years, matching the union's agreements with Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis, where ratification votes also are underway. Including restored cost-of-living adjustments, the UAW said, veteran workers would see their pay rise about 33 percent over the course of the contract, to $42.95 an hour.

Hourly starting wages, with COLA adjustments factored in, would top $30 per hour. Temporary workers with at least 90 days of experience would get immediate raises ranging from 51 to 115 percent, the union has said.