TOLEDO, Ohio — The UAW on Thursday released what their tentative contract made with GM looks like.
Details of the agreement include:
- A $11,000 bonus for UAW GM workers
- A $4,500 for temporary workers
- GM says they will invest $7.7 billion in U.S. facilities to create 9,000 jobs.
On Thursday afternoon, it also was announced that striking workers will stay on the picket lines until voting on the contract is complete. That is expected to be finished by the end of next week.
Read all the contract information here.
As far as what happens next, education sessions are being scheduled in each union region and local chapter. Local unions are responsible for that along with setting up these own voting times.
Instructions for that are going out later today, with the last vote done by the weekend of Oct. 25.
UAW officials say they believe the contract leaves a clear path for most temporary workers to move up, even within the first year
Workers remain on strike until ratification vote passed and that was the call of Local leader. they felt workers should stay out until the vote.
UAW leadership recommended ratifying the tentative proposal. A final vote from membership will determine if the strike will end. Meeting on the pact are planned to start Saturday. Workers on strike in Toledo said their information is this Sunday.
Factory-level officials from the United Auto Workers union voted to recommend the agreement to members at a daylong meeting in Detroit on Thursday. But they also voted not to return to factories unless members approve the deal.
"It is their contract, it is in their hands," said Terry Dittes, UAW's lead bargainer.
About 49,000 workers have been on strike for more than a month, paralyzing GM's U.S. factories and costing the company an estimated $2 billion.
On Wednesday, the company and the UAW reached a deal that would give workers a mix of pay raises, lump sum payments and an $11,000 signing bonus. In return, the contract allows GM to proceed with factory closures in Lordstown, Ohio; Warren, Michigan; and near Baltimore.
The Detroit Hamtramck plant, which GM wanted to close, will stay open and a new electric pickup truck will be built there. Meanwhile, the Lordstown area will get a new battery factory that is expected to employ 1,000 workers. In addition, a company called Lordstown Motors could also set up a factory that would initially employ 400 workers. But neither of those would come close to the shuttered Lordstown assembly plant, which two years ago employed 4,500 people making the Chevrolet Cruze compact car.
The deal shortens the eight years it takes for new hires to reach full wages and gives temporary workers a full-time job after three years of continuous work. Workers hired after 2007 who are paid a lower wage rate will hit the top wage of $32.32 per hour in four years or less. The deal also provides a $60,000 early retirement incentive for up to 2,000 eligible workers.
The tentative agreement between GM and the UAW now will be used as a template for talks with GM's crosstown rivals, Ford and Fiat Chrysler. Normally the major provisions carry over to the other two companies and cover about 140,000 auto workers nationwide. It wasn't clear which company the union would bargain with next, or whether there would be another strike.