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Tentative UAW-GM deal could end weekslong Big Three auto strike with ‘record’ contracts

Sources say deal reached with GM Monday

United Auto Workers members Marlese Davenport, left, and Carolyn Nippa, right, walk the picket line at a General Motors parts distribution warehouse in Van Buren Township, Mich., Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) (Paul Sancya, Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

DETROIT – The United Auto Workers union on Monday reached a tentative contract agreement with General Motors, a source told the AP, likely ending the weekslong strike at Detroit’s Big Three automakers.

Autoworkers had stopped striking or were preparing to end their strike at Stellantis and Ford Motor Company facilities after the UAW reached tentative agreements with both carmakers in the same week. GM was the lone holdout, but talks continued Sunday and ultimately resulted in a tentative deal on Monday, Oct. 30 that mirrors the deals made with the other Big Three, sources report.

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Like with Ford and Stellantis, the GM deal is expected to contain a 25% wage increase that will be increased even more by a reinstated cost of living adjustments. The Ford and Stellantis deals also included increases in starting wages and wages for temporary workers, the ability to strike plant closures, the end of wage tiers for some workers, pension bumps, and more.

Specific details about the deal with GM were not immediately known, but were expected to be made public in the near future. Prior to the agreement reached Monday, GM was the first of the Big Three to agree to include its electric vehicle battery production facilities under its national contract agreement with the UAW, essentially unionizing those facilities.

New UAW President Shawn Fain said under its deal with Ford, workers at the carmaker’s electric vehicle and battery plants will also fall under union agreements once their workforce becomes majority union. It’s a major win for autoworkers concerned about their position in an EV-focused future, in which the carmakers are investing billions in their transition away from traditional vehicles.

The GM deal comes just days after the UAW reached a tentative agreement with Ford last Wednesday, and with Stellantis over the weekend. The union on Saturday escalated its strike at GM in hopes of pushing the carmaker to make a deal quickly so that “Ford and Stellantis workers don’t vote down (their) tentative agreements because they want to see what GM workers get,” University of Michigan business professor Erik Gordon told the AP.

After adding GM’s Spring Hill plant in Tennessee to the strike on Saturday, the strike at GM was expected to end with a tentative contract agreement on the table, as it has at Ford and Stellantis. Workers were expected to return to their jobs while the deals moved through the approval process.

---> Learn more about the Ford deal here

None of the union deals with any of the automakers had been ratified by union members as of Monday. The process was expected to take at least several days for each deal, as the union follows steps that lead up to the membership’s deciding vote.

More than 40,000 of the UAW’s 146,000 autoworkers were part of the Big Three strike across more than 20 states over the last several weeks. Union leaders had expanded the strike in recent weeks to include some of the automakers’ most profitable facilities, putting pressure on the carmakers to reach a deal, and fast.

“The stand-up strike will go down in history as an inflection point for our union, and for our movement,” Fain said in a social media video posted Sunday.

The UAW’s negotiations with the Big Three had been particularly tense, or at least more publicly so, under the leadership of new President Shawn Fain, who has been aggressive with the union’s goals and means to achieve them. Fain has been critical of each automaker, arguing their tens of billions of dollars in recent profits have not translated to better pay or benefits for autoworkers.

Carmakers claimed the union’s initial demands, which included a more than 40% wage increase, were outrageous and unrealistic given the companies’ needs to remain competitive amid their massive investment in EVs. Union leaders, on the other hand, argued the Big Three have more than enough in profits to improve pay and benefits for autoworkers who made significant concessions to help the companies stay afloat during and after the Great Recession.

Union leaders made it clear from the start that they were seeking “record contracts” for their members, and both sides agree that the tentative deals reached are just that.

Ratification next steps

After reaching a tentative contract agreement with Ford, UAW President Fain laid out the following steps that the union will observe in its process to either approve or reject the deal. The same process is expected to be applied for Stellantis and GM autoworkers, as well:

  • Council review: The UAW’s national councils will vote on whether to send the tentative agreement to the entire membership. The UAW National Ford Council has already voted in favor of the Ford deal, and has moved on to the next steps.
  • Share agreement details: If the councils approve the deals, the UAW will share the full details of the deals on social media for all members and the public to review.
  • Local union meetings: Regional meetings will be held for local UAW leaders to be walked through the details of the agreements.
  • Member vote: The locals will hold informational meetings to review and discuss the tentative agreements, and then members will be able to cast their vote for or against ratification.

If the majority of the UAW members vote in support of the four-year and eight-month contract agreements, they will be ratified and will take effect. Union members also have the power to reject the tentative agreements.


More UAW strike coverage here


About the Author
Cassidy Johncox headshot

Cassidy Johncox is a senior digital news editor covering stories across the spectrum, with a special focus on politics and community issues.

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