UAW Contract Voting Has Been Mixed Thus Far

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

Unionized Ford workers in Louisville, Kentucky, and General Motors employees from Spring Hill, Tennessee, have voted no on the contract agreement reached by the United Auto Workers. While this only represents a fraction of the UAW votes needed to ratify the updated contract, it’s a sign that the deal hasn’t yet gone through and may not if the trend continues. 


On Monday, production workers at the Ford Kentucky Truck Plant and Louisville Assembly Plant voted against the tentative agreement. The UAW had the nay vote pinned at 54.5 percent between the two facilities. But it looks as though the pickup truck factory was more-or-less evenly split on the matter. 


By Tuesday, the UAW also announced that over two-thirds of the workers from GM’s Spring Hill Manufacturing had also voted against agreements union negotiators had previously made. 


While we’ve covered the matter before ( and in greater detail) those terms include a 25-percent pay raise over the life of the contract, the restoration of the cost-of-living adjustment, additional time off, improved retirement benefits, and more. 


UAW President Shawn Fain, who had been very aggressive in negotiating terms he deemed restored benefits previous union leadership lost, has been adamant that members should take the deal. The matter was reiterated during a speech he gave on November 8th. 


Truth be told, media outlets appear to be making the situation appear more fraught than it actually is. Despite several unionized Ford plants voting against the proposed contract, the vast majority have already voted in support. It would take nearly every unionized facility Blue Oval has left to vote in opposition for ratification to fail. 


Things appear to be much tighter over at General Motors. In addition to Spring Hill, the UAW has seen no votes moving forward at Romulus Propulsion Systems, Flint Truck Assembly, Pontiac Stamping, Tonawanda Powertrain, Marion Metal Center, and the Martinsburg Parts Distribution Center. The margins are much closer than what we’ve seen with Ford or Stellantis. 


As the overall votes will change as more union members cast their ballots, there’s not much reason to dwell on GM’s current tally. But it’s close enough for there to be a chance that the contract may not be ratified at a nearly 52/58 split. 


The divide seems to be driven primarily by production workers. Skilled trade employees tended to vote overwhelmingly in favor of the updated contracts, with rare exceptions taking place at facilities where line workers expressed strong opposition to the deal. 


Our guess is that Ford and Stellantis (the latter of which still has quite a bit of voting left to do) will ratify the contracts. Meanwhile, we’ll all be trying to figure out why unionized GM workers seem more hesitant.


While we’ve started asking around, CNBC claimed it's been speaking with “industry experts and UAW members’” alleging that veteran workers are concerned they’re not receiving as much as newer employees under the terms of the deal. While this is supposed to pertain mainly to retirement benefits, they were likewise said to be concerned over some of the language used in the tentative agreements and a lingering distrust in union leadership after past corruption scandals of former leaders.


“I don’t think the tentative agreement goes far enough. I think it’s divisive. It doesn’t get rid of the tiers, and it doesn’t meet all of our needs as a whole,” Brian Keller, a former UAW presidential candidate in several past elections and an outspoken worker from Stellantis’ Mopar parts operations, told the outlet. “You gotta remember, we were stagnant from the time of the bankruptcy to 2015. We didn’t get no wage increases.”


That could just as easily be flipped into a win for the union, however. This is undoubtedly a juicer contract than the union had seen in years and strives to undo some of the concessions made since 2008. Fain has attempted to use those facts to convince UAW members to vote yes on the terms of the deal. 


“I truly believe these are record contracts and are a major victory for our movement,” Fain said on Wednesday. “There were many in the media and in the corporate class who were saying we didn’t know what we were doing. And they thought we’d never get a deal. But then we got all three.”


He's undoubtedly correct there. The UAW aims to frame the contract as a massive victory it can use to encourage non-unionized plants to join its ranks. That remains a desirable outcome for a subset of the political class that believes the UAW will remain a staunch ally. But the matter has complicated the union's role just as much as some of its earlier corruption scandals and most companies don't want to have to deal with collective bargaining if there's an alternative. We've recently seen several automakers without union ties offering pay bumps in the wake of the UAW contract. While inflationary pressures likely played a role, the timing suggests the union issue was probably the biggest factor.


[Image: UAW]

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Matt Posky
Matt Posky

Consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulations. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, he has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed about the automotive sector by national broadcasts, participated in a few amateur rallying events, and driven more rental cars than anyone ever should. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and learned to drive by twelve. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer and motorcycles.

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  • Dukeisduke Dukeisduke on Nov 16, 2023

    The votes at the GM Arlington Assembly came in yesterday, with nearly 61 percent voting yes. That pushes GM's total Yes votes to 54 percent. It looks like the workers at all the three Detroit automakers will approve their contracts.

  • Dukeisduke Dukeisduke on Nov 16, 2023

    Workers at the Mack truck plant have ended their 39-day strike, approving their contract.

    • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Nov 16, 2023

      Although at the time it was surprising, they turned out to be correct to wait (assuming they received similar terms).



  • Gray Here in Washington state they want to pass a law dictating what tires you can buy or not. They want to push economy tires in a northern state full of rain and snow. Everything in my driveway wears all terrains. I'm not giving that up for an up to 3 percent difference.
  • 1995 SC I remember when Elon could do no wrong. Then we learned his politics and he can now do no right. And we is SpaceX always left out of his list of companies?
  • Steve Biro I’ll try one of these Tesla driverless taxis after Elon takes one to and from work each and every day for five years. Either he’ll prove to me they are safe… or he’ll be dead. Think he’ll be willing to try it?
  • Theflyersfan After the first hard frost or freeze - if the 10 day forecast looks like winter is coming - that's when the winter tires go on. You can call me a convert to the summer performance tire and winter tire car owner. I like the feel of the tires that are meant to be used in that season, and winter tires make all of the difference in snowy conditions. Plus, how many crazy expensive Porsches and Land Rovers do we see crashed out after the first snow because there's a chance that the owner still kept their summer tires on. "But...but...but I have all wheel drive!!!" Yes, so all four tires that now have zero grip can move in unison together.
  • Theflyersfan One thing the human brain can do very well (at least hopefully in most drivers) is quickly react to sudden changes in situations around them. Our eyes and brains can quickly detect another driving dangerously, a construction zone that popped up while we were at work, dense fog out of nowhere, conflicting lines and signs on some highways, kids darting out between cars, etc. All of this self driving tech has shown us that it is maybe 80% of the way there, but it's that last 20% that still scares the crap out of us. Self driving computers can have multiple cameras feeding the system constant information, but can it react in time or can it work through conflicting data - think of construction zones with lines everywhere, orange signs with new exit information by the existing green exit sign, etc. Plus, and I think it's just GM's test mules, some systems require preexisting "knowledge" of the routes taken and that's putting a lot of faith in a system that needs to be updated in real time. I think in the next 15-20 years, we'll have a basic system that can self drive along interstates and highways, but city streets and neighborhoods - the "last mile" - will still be self drive. Right now, I'd be happy with a system that can safely navigate the slog of rush hour and not require human input (tapping the wheel for example) to keep the system active.
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