UAW-GM Contract Vote Looking Like a Close One

Today is the last day of voting for UAW members employed at General Motors plants. By day’s end, we’ll know whether the rank and file saw fit to ratify the tentative agreement signed last week, thus ending the now 40-day-long strike, or send their bargaining team back to the table in search of a better deal.

So far, the membership hasn’t proven particularly enthusiastic, especially those employed at GMCH parts plants.

As reported by Automotive News, GM Components Holdings workers at four plants feel left out of the big gains seen in the tentative agreement, with two western New York plants voting 81 percent against the deal.

“GMCH has always been referred to as the redheaded stepchild. We got the crumbs that fell off the table,” said Lockport, NY GMCH plant worker Bob Schimschack. Under the proposed contract, workers hired after the beginning of the last contract would see their maximum pay rise to $22.50 after eight years. Full-time workers at regular GM assembly plants would see their wages top $32 an hour within four years.

AN is keeping a running tally of results from the separate votes of GM production workers and skilled trades workers. At last check, it’s a slim “yes” from production workers, with broader support seen from the skilled trades. With just under 24,000 votes counted thus far among the production side, 12,996 have voted in favor with 10,961 opting for a better deal.

Earlier this morning, 58 percent of workers at Lansing Delta Township Assembly voted to rejected the deal, according to AN‘s Michael Martinez. A slim majority of Fairfax Assembly’s workers did the same. However, GM’s largest assembly plant, Arlington Assembly, gave the contract a healthy thumbs-up.

Voting wraps up this afternoon, and you can bet we’ll update you on the results.

[Image: General Motors]