GM UAW members ratify contract after 54.7% approval in vote
United Auto Workers members at General Motors appear to have ratified a record labor contract Thursday despite some of GM's big assembly plants voting it down in recent days.
According to the union's online voting tracker all the votes are in and the tentative contract with GM has passed by 54.7%. The vote is unofficial.
A source with the union, who cannot be named because they are not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed the tracker is complete and it is "safe to report" that the deal is ratified with 19,683 members voting "yes" and 16,274 voting "no."
About 36,000 members at GM facilities turned out to vote. There are about 48,000 union members who work for GM.
A slim victory
GM spokesman David Barnas said the company will decline to comment until the union formally announces the agreement is ratified. GM leaders have said they will hold an investor call some time after the deal is ratified to go over the financial implications for the company.
The UAW also did not comment.
The news comes after days of questions over whether it would pass at GM following seven of GM’s 11 U.S. assembly plants voting it down. But as the Detroit Free Press reported late Wednesday, there remained only a handful of small GM facilities with a total of about 1,000 members still needing to vote. At that time, even if they all were to vote no, the agreement was poised to pass.
One plant that helped push the deal through was GM's Arlington Assembly in Texas where GM builds its big SUVs. At Arlington, 2,051 members voted to ratify the deal and 1,323 voted against it, according to the vote tracker on www.uaw.org/gm2023.
GM's crosstown rivals Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis are clocking in wider margins to victory, according to the UAW tracker on their web pages. At Ford, the UAW reported that total yes votes as of noon Thursday were 20,546 and no votes stood at 10,237. At Stellantis, the UAW reported total yes votes were at 11,528 and total no votes were 5,806.
Ford's final results are expected later this week and Stellantis' final numbers could come early next week, according to the union person.
The GM contract details
The tentative agreement with GM largely mirrors the deals with Ford and Stellantis. The union has said the agreement grants 25% in base wage increases through April 2028, and will cumulatively raise the top wage by 33% compounded with estimated cost-of-living adjustments to over $42 an hour. The starting wage will increase by 70% compounded with estimated COLA, to over $30 an hour.
But some of the traditional workers at GM, those hired before 2007, felt the wage increases they were getting in the deal was a lower gain than that of newer hires. They wanted more of the 25% wage increase granted to them in the first two years of the 4.5 year contract, said Rich LeTourneau, UAW Local 2209 shop chairman at GM's Fort Wayne Assembly plant in Indiana. He said some at his plant were also disappointed with pension contributions.
There was also an issue around a buyout offer. GM will offer three company special attrition programs (SAPs) from January 2024 through the life of the agreement that include a $50,000 lump sum pretax retirement incentive for traditional employees who meet the normal or early retirement eligibility requirements.
But there are no specific dates for when those employees can take advantage of the SAPs, said another union source who cited that as a reason for some members voting no. That person cannot be named because they are not authorized to speak publicly, but they said GM is expected to provide specific dates in the near future.
Contact Jamie L. LaReau: jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: GM UAW members ratify record contract in contentious vote
