The UAW’s 46-day strike against the Detroit Three Automakers appears to be winding down following the announcement of a tentative agreement with General Motors.
The deals hammered out between the union and GM, Ford and Stellantis still require ratification by the rank-and-file, a process that hasn’t begun yet. About 150,000 UAW members work for the three automakers.
The GM agreement reached Monday is patterned after contract proposals the UAW signed with Ford and Stellantis, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. All three agreements call for union members to receive $25-an-hour raises over the 54-month life of the contracts, plus a variety of benefits and conditions of employment.
The deal with GM came after some 4,000 members of UAW Local 1853 struck the automaker’s largest U.S. plant – at Spring Hill, TN.
Spring Hill is GM’s largest plant in North America and builds the Cadillac XT5, Cadillac XT6, GMC Acadia and all-electric Cadillac Lyriq. The complex also builds engines and polymer injection parts used in various GM products, including pickup trucks built in Fort Wayne, IN, and Silao, Mexico.
The expansion of the strike to Spring Hill on Saturday followed the UAW’s decision earlier last week to walk out at the GM assembly plant in Arlington, TX, where it builds profitable vehicles such as the Cadillac Escalade and Chevrolet Suburban. Earlier targeted strikes closed GM’s midsize truck plant in Wentzville, MO (pictured, below); the utility vehicle plant in Delta Township, MI; and the company’s parts depots across the U.S.
The strike at Spring Hill came shortly after the UAW announced it had reached a tentative agreement with Stellantis on a new labor pact. Similarly to GM, the UAW had expanded its so-called “stand-up strikes” to a Stellantis plant making profitable vehicles – in this case the pickup-truck complex at Sterling Heights, MI.
The marathon negotiations with GM appeared to have stalled over issues such as the use of temporary workers, which the UAW wants to end, and the higher cost of pension adjustments the union already successfully negotiated, first at Ford and then at Stellantis.
Also at issue was the UAW’s demand for the right to strike over plant closings, which GM considers a major abridgement of management rights.
GM, however, appeared hemmed in on the issue by the Ford and Stellantis tentative agreements and a ruling by an outside arbitrator in early September just as this year’s negotiations were heating up.
The arbitrator’s ruling states GM violated the contract it signed with the UAW in 2015 by ordering the shutdown of plants in Lordstown, OH, and Baltimore.
The arbitrator’s ruling states any employees adversely impacted by GM plant closing decisions are entitled to back pay. In 2015, GM promised not to close any plants during the four-year term of the contract. The UAW is now insisting on the right to strike over plant closings.
At its peak about 18,000 UAW members were already striking at Detroit Three factories in Texas, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Kentucky, in addition to parts distribution centers nationwide. Union members have been collecting $500 per week in strike pay.
UAW President Shawn Fain notes Stellantis had raised its initial offer by 103% since the strike began. But the union also gave up some of its demands, including the restoration of the traditional defined benefit pension plan and a 32-hour work week. The UAW did win an extra holiday and more vacation days.
The ratification bonus paid workers in recent contracts was reduced. The bonus was $9,000 in 2019 and is set at $5,000 in the tentative agreements at Ford and Stellantis.
“Once again, we have achieved what just weeks ago we were told was impossible,” Fain says in a statement.
