UAW will continue GM strike until workers ratify deal

DETROIT — UAW leaders on Thursday voted to extend the union’s national strike against General Motors - now in its 32nd day - until members ratify a tentative agreement. 

Following a 6 1/2-hour meeting of the UAW’s GM national council here, union spokesman Brian Rothenberg said the council voted to send the deal for ratification and to keep members on picket lines until the deal is ratified. He said informational meetings and voting will begin on Saturday, and the process should be completed in eight days, or next Friday, Oct. 25.

The union and automaker on Wednesday reached a tentative agreement that includes a total $9 billion in investments by GM, a commitment to keep open the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant and a path for temporary workers to gain full-time status, among other gains. 

Union members can ratify the deal with a simple majority of members voting in favor.

Informational meetings regarding the details of the tentative deal will begin on Saturday. The UAW’s spokesman originally said voting would start Saturday as well, but later said individual locals would set their voting times and he was unsure when it would begin. The process is expected to wrap up by 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 25.

“There are some things that everybody liked,” a UAW-GM council member who asked not to be identified told Automotive News. "We obviously didn’t get everything we wanted, but it was clear that membership would be the final voice on it.” 

In a statement, GM said: "We encourage the UAW to move as quickly as possible through the ratification process, so we can resume operations and get back to producing vehicles for our customers. Our goal during these negotiations was to ensure that the future of General Motors is one that works for our employees, dealers, suppliers and the communities where we operate. The agreement reflects our commitment to U.S. manufacturing through the creation of new jobs and increased investment.”

Prolonging the strike by another week means an additional $400 million in losses for GM, according to the Anderson Economic Group, a consulting firm in East Lansing, Mich. UAW workers will lose $14 million more in lost wages per day, and supplier employees who continue to be laid off will lose $20.5 million per day, the firm estimates.

Through bonuses and wage increases, “GM did everything they could with money,” Patrick Anderson, CEO of the firm, told Automotive News. “They absolutely needed the flexibility to close plants they can’t possibly fill. I’m not surprised that’s a bitter pill to swallow for the UAW."

The UAW’s tentative agreement with GM would give full-time hourly workers a signing bonus of $11,000, provide wage or lump-sum pay increases of at least 3 percent annually and allow new hires to reach top wages in four years instead of eight, according to a summary of the deal provided by the union.

During the Thursday meeting, UAW leaders were going through the contract summary page-by-page, with considerable debate about job security and three plants slated for closure, a person with knowledge of the meeting told Automotive News. Unlike the summaries from prior contracts, this year’s “highlighter” does not contain any details about plant investments or product commitments GM is making.

Union officials also raised concerns about their members going back to work while UAW-represented janitorial workers remained on strike against GM, a person familiar with the matter said. The union was still negotiating with Aramark, the vendor that employs those workers, earlier in the day, but reached a temporary agreement with the company by late Thursday afternoon.

Details about the tentative deal with Aramark workers were not immediately available. Union officials earlier were concerned about asking rank-and-file to cross their own union's picket lines, the person said. 

The tentative contract with GM, if ratified, would result in all current workers earning at least $32.32 an hour by September 2023. Temporary workers would have a path to becoming full-time employees, the summary said.

Profit-sharing payouts would no longer be capped at $12,000 annually, though the formula for calculating them would not change. Health care coverage also is unchanged.

GM also will contribute $1,000 to the pensions of workers hired prior to 2007 who still are eligible for that benefit and is offering $60,000 bonuses to up to 2,060 workers eligible for retirement who leave the company in January or February. 

Part of the agreement also includes dissolving the union and automaker’s jointly-run training center. The building that houses the UAW-GM training center in Detroit "will be sold and the company will provide a building for joint activities and training. Funds remaining from dissolving the (training center) and building sale will be used for going forward joint activities," the union memo said. Automotive News reported on Oct. 4 that the dismantling of the training center was among the issues at the bargaining table. 

GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck plant, which was scheduled to end production in January, will remain open, the contract summary said. The contract calls for a $3 billion investment in the plant to build electric pickups, vans and battery modules, Automotive News first reported on Thursday. 

But Lordstown Assembly in Ohio and transmission plants in Michigan and Maryland will be closed permanently. Workers from those plants will be offered several options for retirement bonuses, early retirement or buyouts of up to $75,000 and will not have to repay any relocation assistance they already have received. 

A parts distribution center in Fontana, Calif., also will close if the contract is ratified, the agreement says. The operation employs 31 hourly and 24 salaried workers. 

GM, in an emailed statement, said it remains committed to creating jobs in Ohio. The automaker said it would bring battery cell manufacturing operations to northeast Ohio, creating 1,000 new jobs. It also said it will move ahead with the sale of the Lordstown complex to Lordstown Motors Corp., a new company affiliated with Ohio-based Workhorse Group that "plans to build electric pickups for commercial fleet customers" and create 400 jobs at the site initially. 

"These two initiatives are not covered under the proposed tentative agreement reached between the parties," the GM statement said.

GM said other Ohio initiatives announced in May for operations in Parma, Toledo and Daytona "remain on track" and are expected to create more than 450 jobs. 

A group of Lordstown workers chanted to UAW leaders as they entered the meeting, “Lordstown matters. Invest in Lordstown.”

The workers were “short-changed” when GM idled the plant, said Missy Eckenrode, who was transferred to Wentzville Assembly in Missouri.

“They should allocate a product and keep products in the USA. We want to keep our jobs in our hometown where we've had lives,” she said.

Art Schwartz, a former GM negotiator who's now president of Labor and Economics Associates, said he thought the deal had a strong chance of being ratified by members. 

“There’s a lot of money in there,” he said. “That $11,000 is going to look very tempting. Other than the fact they couldn’t save the three plants, they pretty much got what they wanted.”

A worker on the picket line at GM's Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant said he agrees with staying on strike until the deal is ratified.

“If it gets voted down they’re just going to have to bring us right back out again,” said Nelson Orley, a team leader at the plant. “If they build the system back up again and then we strike, the cars would probably have to be scrapped. Some sealers and stuff have expiration dates on them.”

Melissa Rose-Gorny, a team leader at the plant for just under eight years, said she was worried about a path to full-time employment for temporary workers taking too long. 

“It shouldn’t take three years for someone to become permanent,” Rose-Gorny said. “And there’s no job security in electric cars.”

The UAW and GM also agreed to establish a national committee on advanced technology to “discuss the impact of future technologies on UAW members and address instances where bargaining unit work has shifted out of the unit due to new manufacturing processes,” according to the contract highlights.

The committee will tour GM’s tech centers to learn about the company’s long-term manufacturing vision, review upcoming electric and autonomous vehicles, review GM’s plans for new technology at UAW facilities and ensure that UAW members are properly trained before vehicle launches.

In April, GM CEO Mary Barra said the automaker would build an electric full-size pickup. The company has said it plans to invest $8 billion to build electric and self-driving vehicles.

The union also said General Motors Components Holdings employees can now earn up to $22.50 after 96 months of work, up from $19.86 top wages now. The GMCH subsidiary was created in 2009. Employees typically do work that had been previously done by suppliers and are paid a lower wage than traditional full-time workers. 

Nick Bunkley and Sarah Kominek contributed to this report.