UAW-GM Agreement Appears Heading Toward Ratification

United Auto Workers at General Motors’ Fort Wayne, Indiana facility overwhelmingly agreed to a proposed contract with the automaker that would raise wages and eventually close the gap between veteran workers and employees hired after 2007, Reuters reported.

Workers at the facility, who build full-size trucks for GM, approved the contract by nearly 60 percent. Workers at other GM facilities, including Wentzville, Missouri and Spring Hill, Tennessee, approved the deal by similar margins, paving the way for ultimate approval for the labor contract.

According to the Detroit Free Press, workers at other GM plants such as Pontiac Metal Center and Defiance, Ohio approved the deal by more than 60 percent, although a schism between skilled trades workers and production workers appeared to be growing. In Defiance, skilled trades workers rejected the deal by 56 percent, but production workers more than made up for those votes, and the plant eventually approved the deal by 65 percent.

Trades workers under the new deal wouldn’t be eligible for a $60,000 buyout to retirement, unlike production workers. The new deal would also continue to redefine job classifications for tradesmen and their tasks, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Negotiators presented the contract, which included an additional $1.9 billion investment promise by GM in the deal, to workers last month. Newer-hired workers at GM plants, so-called Tier 2 workers, who’ve worked for 8 years would eventually reach Tier 1 status and pay, although those workers would have different retirement plans. Workers would receive annual profit sharing bonuses under the new deal that would pay workers incrementally for every $1 billion the automaker brings in.

The deal also leaves unchanged GM employees health care program, which was a major sticking point between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles workers and the first deal that was ultimately rejected.

Under the deal, workers at GM plants would receive annual raises — the first substantial raises in a decade — and $1,000 bonus payments in May.

If approved, the four-year deal would cover roughly 52,600 UAW workers at GM plants.

The UAW will next negotiate with Ford after successful contracts with GM and FCA.