The landmark agreement between the UAW auto union and GM is facing a major hurdle
Despite the advances made by the UAW, their labor
agreements must be confirmed by their members before
they can be implemented.
The United Auto Workers, led by Shawn Fain, have landed landmark agreements with the big three Detroit automakers that have ended their strike.
However, such agreements must be approved by the union membership before they are put into place and implemented.
According to a report by Reuters, UAW members who are General Motors (GM) - Get Free Report factory workers at the Flint assembly plant in Michigan have narrowly voted against a proposed contract with the manufacturer.
A Facebook post on Thursday evening by the UAW Local 598 chapter said that its members voted against the deal by a narrow 51.8%
Workers at other plants are expected to vote on the same agreement within the next few weeks.
The Flint assembly plant assembles the popular Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, a profitable product that has been a sales leader for GM.
A Chevrolet Silverado pace truck drives through turn seven on a parade lap before the NTT IndyCar Series GMR Grand Prix on May 13 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in Indianapolis. (Photo by Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The plant's vote comes after the Big Three automakers and the UAW reached tentative deals over the last few weeks to end a costly strike following marathon negotiations.
The agreement with GM, which covers 46,000 workers at the Detroit auto giant, grants a 25% increase in starting wage through April 2028 and will continually increase the top wage by 33% to over $42 an hour, along with cost-of-living adjustments (COLA).More Labor
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Electric cars and trucks have been a primary focus for Detroit's car manufacturers, as it tries to dethrone the current market leader Tesla (TSLA) - Get Free Report. Amidst the strike, General Motors scaled back its electric car manufacturing expansion by postponing the opening of a $4 billion electric truck plant in Michigan.
Fri, November 10, 2023
By Shivansh Tiwary
(Reuters) -United Auto Workers (UAW) union members at General Motors' Flint assembly plant in Michigan have narrowly voted against a proposed contract with the U.S. automaker, the local chapter said.
The vote signals that approval of the deal, which is set to raise costs significantly for GM, is not guaranteed.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, the UAW Local 598 said 51.8% of votes cast were against the proposed deal.
GM said it would not comment during the ratification process.
Shares of the company, which has 4,746 workers at the Flint plant, fell about 1.2% in morning trade to hit a more than three-year low of $26.30.
Workers at the company's other plants are expected to vote on the agreement in the coming weeks.
Of the total votes cast at the company's various facilities so far, about 58% of workers voted in favor of the deal, according to a UAW vote tracker.
Workers are yet to vote at some of GM's major plants including the Arlington assembly plant in Texas and Fort Wayne truck plant in Indiana, which produce some of the company's most profitable vehicles.
Union workers are voting on contracts from each of Chrysler-owner Stellantis, General Motors and Ford Motor, after the first coordinated strike against Detroit's Big Three automakers.
The vote at the Flint assembly plant, which manufactures the Silverado heavy duty pickup truck, comes after the Detroit Three automakers and the UAW reached tentative deals over the last few weeks to end a costly strike following marathon negotiations.
The UAW's new agreement, which covers 46,000 workers overall at GM, grants a 25% increase in base wage 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 chances of GM putting more than another 15 cents on the table are low," said Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan business professor.
The historic deal with the Detroit Three has prompted rival automakers with a non-unionized workforce to offer hikes.
Japan's Honda Motor said on Friday it was implementing an 11% pay increase for production workers at its U.S. facilities from January.
Subaru Corp of Indiana Automotive also said it planned to provide its U.S. associates a "pre-holiday announcement" as part of its biannual process.
Separately, the UAW said Volvo Group-owned Mack Trucks has informed the union that the Oct. 1 offer to striking workers was its "last, best and final".
Voting on the offer has been tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, the union said.
(Reporting by Nathan Gomes and Shivansh Tiwary in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Krishna Chandra Eluri)
Striking UAW will vote again on rejected Mack Trucks offer
Alan Adler
Thu, November 9, 2023
Striking United Auto Workers will vote a second time on a rejected master contract at Mack Trucks. (Photo: Alan Adler/FreightWaves)
Striking United Auto Workers at Mack Trucks will vote again next week on the company’s last, best and final offer of a master contract, essentially unchanged from the deal workers rejected.
Mack told the union that the 20% compound wage increases offered over five years was its final offer in a new master agreement. The sides agreed on new terms specific to four local agreements during the latest round of negotiations.
About 3,900 workers in Pennsylvania, Florida and Maryland rejected that offer by 73% in voting on Oct. 8. Workers will vote for a second time on Nov. 15 and 16 depending on location.
Mack’s main assembly plant near Allentown, Pennsylvania, has been idle since the walkout began Oct. 9. Workers at five other Volvo Group facilities, including an engine plant in Hagerstown, Maryland, also are on strike. Mack is part of Volvo Group North America.
Strike has minimal impact on Volvo Trucks operations
Unlike a UAW strike at Mack four years ago, production continued largely unaffected at the Volvo Trucks North America (VTNA) plant in Dublin, Virginia. VTNA took one day of strike-related downtime on Oct. 30.
A separate six-year master agreement reached in 2021 following a five-week UAW strike governs the VTNA New River Valley complex..
“The tentative agreement employees will vote on includes the strong wage and benefit package the company offered at the master contract level and tentatively agreed to by the parties on Oct. 1, as well as a number of revised terms negotiated with the UAW on local agreements impacting LVO [Lehigh Valley Operations], Hagerstown, Baltimore and Jacksonville,” Mack said in a statement Wednesday.
About 45% of the total workforce is in progression, meaning they started at a lower wage and would grow into the top rate across five years, down from six years in the last contract. For that group of workers across all sites, the average wage increase over five years would be 55%, with an immediate wage increase of than 20%, Volvo Group spokesman John Mies said in an email Thursday.
General wage increases for production workers in various steps of the progression at Mack Trucks’ Lehigh Valley Operations plant in Pennsylvania under the company’s last, final and best offer to the United Auto Workers, who have been on strike for a month. (Source: Mack Trucks/Volvo Group North America)
Workers at Mack’s medium-duty truck plant in Roanoke, Virginia, are not represented by a union.
Mack says Oct. 1 offer is last, best and final
In a statement on its website, the UAW called for the revote after the company said the Oct. 1 agreement was its last, best and final offer. That deal was endorsed by local and international UAW leadership as a “record contract” for the heavy truck industry.
Mack has taken a hard line since the tentative agreement was rejected. It called new economic demands by the UAW unreasonable and said the union was turning its back on months of negotiations that led to the deal.
Tentative UAW deals with the Detroit Three automakers may have helped bring the Mack-UAW talks to a head. Autoworkers will get a compound 25% increase over 4 ½ years, signing bonuses and other gains.
At a Nov. 2 rally, union leaders at Mack said their demand for restoration of annual cost of living adjustments (COLA) mirrored those included in the automaker agreements.
The UAW gave up COLA in 2009 during the Great Recession to help General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, then part of Fiat, survive. The 2009 COLA formula is part of the master agreements being voted on by the UAW’s 146,000 autoworkers.
It is unclear how Mack will proceed if the UAW rejects the master agreement a second time. UAW-represented workers at VTNA turned down three tentative agreements in 2021 before the company imposed the terms of its last offer.
Editor’s note: Updates with addition details of Mack Trucks’ contract offer up for revote by UAW-represented workers on Nov. 15-16.
Autoworkers hesitate on new contracts despite 'record' pay increases
Marley Jay
Updated Fri, November 10, 2023
Michael Swensen
Workers at Ford, Stellantis and General Motors are weighing in on the new contracts proposed by their union and the Big Three — and a few of them seem unsatisfied with what they're being offered.
UAW Local 598, which represents workers and retirees at a General Motors truck plant in Flint, Michigan, said Thursday that 51.8% of its members voted to reject the deal. Production workers in the chapter narrowly opposed the new contract, while a smaller group of skilled workers strongly supported it.
Another group of GM employees, UAW Local 659, said Tuesday that production workers at the Flint engine operations plant also voted against the deal by a 52% to 48% margin. Other parts of the chapter were strongly in favor, however.
The proposed contracts were negotiated after members of the UAW went on strike for more than six weeks. If majorities at each automaker approve, the pacts will last through April 30, 2028. Union members will get an 11% initial wage increase and a total pay increase of 25% over the course of the 4½ year deal. The new contracts also reinstate cost-of-living adjustments, let workers reach top wages in three years instead of eight, and protect their right to strike over plant closures.
Both the United Auto Workers and the carmakers described the deals as "record" contracts based on those pay increases.
While some union chapters have posted their vote totals on social media, others have not disclosed them, and the UAW will only make the final results public. So it's hard to know what the negative votes say about the odds the contracts will be approved.
The UAW did not respond to a request for comment.
Compared to GM, Ford employees seem a bit more enthusiastic. Ford was the first of the Big Three to reach an agreement with the UAW, and its members are scheduled to finish voting on the proposed contact Nov. 17.
The first group of Ford employees to weigh in was Local 900 at the Michigan assembly plant, which was the first Ford plant to go on strike. The UAW said 82% of those members voted to ratify the contract, with more than 3,000 'yes' votes.
Ford workers are heading to the polls. What we know about Ford, UAW tentative contract
Olivia Evans, Louisville Courier Journal
Fri, November 10, 2023
A little more than two weeks after Ford reached a tentative agreement with the UAW, the union representing 57,000 Ford workers nationwide, some 12,000 workers in Louisville, are headed to the polls on Nov. 12 to vote on the contract.
"Every UAW member at Ford will get a vote on this deal, and the majority rules," Shawn Fain, the International President of the UAW, previously said.
Besides his members-first approach, Fain implemented a never-before-seen strike strategy to the negotiations, which he coined a "stand up" strike, at all three of the Detroit Three automakers — Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis.
Ford experienced a 41-day strike by the UAW after failing to negotiate a new contract prior to the contract expiration on Sept. 14 at 11:59 p.m. The Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville was called to "stand up" and strike on Oct. 11 and held the line for two weeks before the tentative agreement was reached on Oct. 25.
Todd Dunn, president of UAW Local 862, which represents Louisville's 12,000 Ford workers at KTP and the Louisville Assembly Plant, said the contract is viewed as a major win for the workers.
"We've got a contract that's the best contract we've seen in two decades," Dunn told the Courier Journal.
But whether it passes is still up for a vote. The Louisville-based Ford plants, KTP and LAP, represent roughly 21% of all Ford UAW voting members.
"I think we have a strong input ... a strong influence on the agreement," Dunn said.
UAW Local 862 President Todd Dunn. Aug. 14, 2023
In the past, Local 862 has been a tricky union local for the UAW to get to ratify a contract. In 2019, Local 862 voted to not ratify the tentative agreement. The skilled trades workers between LAP and KTP voted 49% against the tentative agreement and the production employees voted 67% against it, Dunn shared.
That same year, the Ford contract passed nationally with 56% of voters in favor of the contract.
The tentative agreement also failed in 2015 and 2011 locally, Dunn said.
Despite the recent history of not passing a tentative agreement at Local 862, Dunn said he is more optimistic this year. The union, under Fain who was elected earlier this year, took a more grassroots approach with collective bargaining.
"Shawn Fain had a strategy, he was a little bit more on the aggressive side than other folks ... but overall, I think it was very strategic," Dunn said.
The Local 862 votes should be tallied and released by Monday. After the votes from all UAW locals representing Ford workers come in, the UAW will announce if the contract has been ratified. Dunn said if the contract is not ratified by members, UAW national negotiators would head back to the bargaining table with Ford and renegotiate its membership concerns.
Here's what the new contract could mean for Ford workers in Louisville:
Will Louisville Ford workers see a pay raise in the tentative agreement?
Ford employees vote during a strike authorization vote Monday, Aug. 21, 2023 at the UAW Local 862 union hall on Chamberlain Lane in Louisville, Ky. The strike authorization would allow the union to strike after its contract expires on Sept. 14, 2023 if deemed necessary.The UAW Local 862 represents more than 12,000 workers at Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant and the Louisville Assembly Plant. Aug. 21, 2023More
The UAW made wages one of its key priorities during negotiations, originally calling for a 40% wage increase. While the union did not win an increase that high, in the tentative agreement workers will see an immediate 11% wage increase upon ratification and a subsequent 3-5% wage increase each October through 2027.
By the end of this contract life in 2028, skilled trades workers will be making $50.57 an hour and production workers will make $42.60 at the top wage rate. Local 862 in Louisville represents 1,104 skilled trades workers and 10,509 production workers at KTP and LAP, according to data shared with the Courier Journal by Local 862.
On top of the wage increase, the progression from entry rate to top wage rate has been reduced from eight years to three years, allowing workers to quickly amass more than $40 per hour. For workers who have currently passed the three-year mark but have not reached the top wage under the 2019 contract, their pay will immediately bump to $35.58 hourly after ratification.
All UAW workers can expect to receive a signing bonus once the contract is ratified. Hourly workers will receive $5,000 and salaried workers, which are the roughly 30 nurses between KTP and LAP, will get $10,000. The signing bonuses will be paid in the second pay period following the ratification of the contract.
"In the past, you've seen significantly higher ratification bonuses, just due to the fact is there was less content, and that's one thing we always said, I would rather have content over a one-time bonus," Dunn said.
How do medical benefits change for Ford workers in the tentative agreement?
Aside from wages and signing bonuses, Dunn shared that the new healthcare updates in the tentative agreement provide workers and their families with better medical care. Previously, Ford workers in Louisville had the option of Humana or Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance, but with Humana exiting the commercial insurance business, roughly 8,000 workers are now being switched over to Blue Cross Blue Shield, which has some employees represented by the UAW.
Dunn said all workers will now receive additional medical care such as a medical travel benefit, preventative screening coverage, chiropractic care and fertility benefits.
"That was a major concern of mine, especially with all the young families having no fertility coverage ... I understand what our members were going through and that was one of the major concerns when we were creating our resolutions," said Dunn.
Is COLA restored in the tentative UAW, Ford contract?
Another sticking point during negotiations this year was cost-of-living adjustments. In 2009, COLA was removed from the National Master Agreement and the union aggressively wanted to see it reinstated. The tentative agreement brings COLA back and provides a total value of $8,800 per worker on average through the life of the four-year contract.
For workers who are eligible to retire by Dec. 1, 2024, the UAW and Ford have tentatively agreed to a gross pre-tax lump sum separation buyout of $50,000 per retiree, in the 2019 contract the buyout was $60,000. Dunn said he has at least 1,700 workers who would qualify for this buyout.
More: How new UAW Ford agreement makes Louisville 'center of the universe' for electric vehicles
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Ford workers in Louisville vote on UAW contract. Here's what we know
Marley Jay
Updated Fri, November 10, 2023
Michael Swensen
Workers at Ford, Stellantis and General Motors are weighing in on the new contracts proposed by their union and the Big Three — and a few of them seem unsatisfied with what they're being offered.
UAW Local 598, which represents workers and retirees at a General Motors truck plant in Flint, Michigan, said Thursday that 51.8% of its members voted to reject the deal. Production workers in the chapter narrowly opposed the new contract, while a smaller group of skilled workers strongly supported it.
Another group of GM employees, UAW Local 659, said Tuesday that production workers at the Flint engine operations plant also voted against the deal by a 52% to 48% margin. Other parts of the chapter were strongly in favor, however.
The proposed contracts were negotiated after members of the UAW went on strike for more than six weeks. If majorities at each automaker approve, the pacts will last through April 30, 2028. Union members will get an 11% initial wage increase and a total pay increase of 25% over the course of the 4½ year deal. The new contracts also reinstate cost-of-living adjustments, let workers reach top wages in three years instead of eight, and protect their right to strike over plant closures.
Both the United Auto Workers and the carmakers described the deals as "record" contracts based on those pay increases.
While some union chapters have posted their vote totals on social media, others have not disclosed them, and the UAW will only make the final results public. So it's hard to know what the negative votes say about the odds the contracts will be approved.
The UAW did not respond to a request for comment.
Compared to GM, Ford employees seem a bit more enthusiastic. Ford was the first of the Big Three to reach an agreement with the UAW, and its members are scheduled to finish voting on the proposed contact Nov. 17.
The first group of Ford employees to weigh in was Local 900 at the Michigan assembly plant, which was the first Ford plant to go on strike. The UAW said 82% of those members voted to ratify the contract, with more than 3,000 'yes' votes.
Ford workers are heading to the polls. What we know about Ford, UAW tentative contract
Olivia Evans, Louisville Courier Journal
Fri, November 10, 2023
A little more than two weeks after Ford reached a tentative agreement with the UAW, the union representing 57,000 Ford workers nationwide, some 12,000 workers in Louisville, are headed to the polls on Nov. 12 to vote on the contract.
"Every UAW member at Ford will get a vote on this deal, and the majority rules," Shawn Fain, the International President of the UAW, previously said.
Besides his members-first approach, Fain implemented a never-before-seen strike strategy to the negotiations, which he coined a "stand up" strike, at all three of the Detroit Three automakers — Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis.
Ford experienced a 41-day strike by the UAW after failing to negotiate a new contract prior to the contract expiration on Sept. 14 at 11:59 p.m. The Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville was called to "stand up" and strike on Oct. 11 and held the line for two weeks before the tentative agreement was reached on Oct. 25.
Todd Dunn, president of UAW Local 862, which represents Louisville's 12,000 Ford workers at KTP and the Louisville Assembly Plant, said the contract is viewed as a major win for the workers.
"We've got a contract that's the best contract we've seen in two decades," Dunn told the Courier Journal.
But whether it passes is still up for a vote. The Louisville-based Ford plants, KTP and LAP, represent roughly 21% of all Ford UAW voting members.
"I think we have a strong input ... a strong influence on the agreement," Dunn said.
UAW Local 862 President Todd Dunn. Aug. 14, 2023
In the past, Local 862 has been a tricky union local for the UAW to get to ratify a contract. In 2019, Local 862 voted to not ratify the tentative agreement. The skilled trades workers between LAP and KTP voted 49% against the tentative agreement and the production employees voted 67% against it, Dunn shared.
That same year, the Ford contract passed nationally with 56% of voters in favor of the contract.
The tentative agreement also failed in 2015 and 2011 locally, Dunn said.
Despite the recent history of not passing a tentative agreement at Local 862, Dunn said he is more optimistic this year. The union, under Fain who was elected earlier this year, took a more grassroots approach with collective bargaining.
"Shawn Fain had a strategy, he was a little bit more on the aggressive side than other folks ... but overall, I think it was very strategic," Dunn said.
The Local 862 votes should be tallied and released by Monday. After the votes from all UAW locals representing Ford workers come in, the UAW will announce if the contract has been ratified. Dunn said if the contract is not ratified by members, UAW national negotiators would head back to the bargaining table with Ford and renegotiate its membership concerns.
Here's what the new contract could mean for Ford workers in Louisville:
Will Louisville Ford workers see a pay raise in the tentative agreement?
Ford employees vote during a strike authorization vote Monday, Aug. 21, 2023 at the UAW Local 862 union hall on Chamberlain Lane in Louisville, Ky. The strike authorization would allow the union to strike after its contract expires on Sept. 14, 2023 if deemed necessary.The UAW Local 862 represents more than 12,000 workers at Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant and the Louisville Assembly Plant. Aug. 21, 2023More
The UAW made wages one of its key priorities during negotiations, originally calling for a 40% wage increase. While the union did not win an increase that high, in the tentative agreement workers will see an immediate 11% wage increase upon ratification and a subsequent 3-5% wage increase each October through 2027.
By the end of this contract life in 2028, skilled trades workers will be making $50.57 an hour and production workers will make $42.60 at the top wage rate. Local 862 in Louisville represents 1,104 skilled trades workers and 10,509 production workers at KTP and LAP, according to data shared with the Courier Journal by Local 862.
On top of the wage increase, the progression from entry rate to top wage rate has been reduced from eight years to three years, allowing workers to quickly amass more than $40 per hour. For workers who have currently passed the three-year mark but have not reached the top wage under the 2019 contract, their pay will immediately bump to $35.58 hourly after ratification.
All UAW workers can expect to receive a signing bonus once the contract is ratified. Hourly workers will receive $5,000 and salaried workers, which are the roughly 30 nurses between KTP and LAP, will get $10,000. The signing bonuses will be paid in the second pay period following the ratification of the contract.
"In the past, you've seen significantly higher ratification bonuses, just due to the fact is there was less content, and that's one thing we always said, I would rather have content over a one-time bonus," Dunn said.
How do medical benefits change for Ford workers in the tentative agreement?
Aside from wages and signing bonuses, Dunn shared that the new healthcare updates in the tentative agreement provide workers and their families with better medical care. Previously, Ford workers in Louisville had the option of Humana or Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance, but with Humana exiting the commercial insurance business, roughly 8,000 workers are now being switched over to Blue Cross Blue Shield, which has some employees represented by the UAW.
Dunn said all workers will now receive additional medical care such as a medical travel benefit, preventative screening coverage, chiropractic care and fertility benefits.
"That was a major concern of mine, especially with all the young families having no fertility coverage ... I understand what our members were going through and that was one of the major concerns when we were creating our resolutions," said Dunn.
Is COLA restored in the tentative UAW, Ford contract?
Another sticking point during negotiations this year was cost-of-living adjustments. In 2009, COLA was removed from the National Master Agreement and the union aggressively wanted to see it reinstated. The tentative agreement brings COLA back and provides a total value of $8,800 per worker on average through the life of the four-year contract.
For workers who are eligible to retire by Dec. 1, 2024, the UAW and Ford have tentatively agreed to a gross pre-tax lump sum separation buyout of $50,000 per retiree, in the 2019 contract the buyout was $60,000. Dunn said he has at least 1,700 workers who would qualify for this buyout.
More: How new UAW Ford agreement makes Louisville 'center of the universe' for electric vehicles
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Ford workers in Louisville vote on UAW contract. Here's what we know
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