The United Auto Workers union reached a tentative agreement on a new contract for 48,000 General Motors workers on Monday, bringing a potential end to the union’s roughly six-week strike against the “Big Three” automakers.
Employees will have the final say on whether to accept each of the deals, however. The union and its local affiliates will spend the coming days breaking down the finer details for members, then hold separate ratification votes for the trio of contracts.“The union said the contract “paves the way for a just transition" as the industry shifts toward electric vehicles.
The union said workers at the Tennessee and Ohio factories run by Ultium Cells, a joint battery venture between GM and LG Energy Solutions, would be subject to the same contract. The automakers have generally said they would not extend the contract to battery plants in which outside companies like LG have a stake.
“We’ve been told for months that this is impossible,” Fain said. “We’ve been told the future must be a race to the bottom. And now we’ve called their bluff.”The tentative deals may bring to a close the first strike the UAW ever waged against all three of the Detroit automakers at once, a work stoppage that has collectively cost the companies billions of dollars in lost production.on Sept. 15, saying “record profits” at the companies call for “record contracts” for employees.