GM, UAW reach new contract agreement

United Auto Workers at Ford Motors, following an 11th hour push by union leadership, narrowly approved a new contract putting in place the third and final labor agreement between Detroit’s “Big Three” and the autoworkers union. “Through a rational and democratic procedure U.A.W.-Ford members have produced occupation protection and powerful economical increases for their families and communities”.

“General Motors is pleased that the UAW membership ratified the 2015 UAW-GM National Agreement, which is good for employees and the business”, Katie McBride, GM spokeswoman said in a statement.

Ford’s union workers in Louisville rejected the contract by a more than 60 percent margin earlier this week.

The GM deal is more generous than the one that the UAW recently negotiated at Fiat Chrysler, but not quite as generous as the deal at Ford. Specifically, skilled trades workers opposed section of the contract meant to reduce the amount of skilled classifications, particularly among mechanical crafts such as millwrights, pipefitters, machine fix people and tool makers who make up 16 percent of total hourly employees.

“Based on how most the U.A.W.-G.M. membership concerns about shielding the core trades categorizations and seniority rights have now been fulfilled, the global Executive Board took action to officially ratify the U.A.W.-G.M. national understanding”, the U.A.W. said in a statement. Leading up to negotiations this year, UAW President Dennis Williams repeatedly promised workers that this round of talks represented “our time” to recover what had been given up. “The majority has secured a strong future that will provide job security and economic stability for themselves and their families”.

The fate of the Ford deal came down to Local 600 in Dearborn, which finished voting at 6 p.m. Friday.

Before votes on Friday, 52 percent of union members had voted against the proposal.

General Motors and its largest union have reached an agreement on a new contract. It promises bonuses of up to $10,250 per worker this year and annual profit-sharing checks and other bonuses each year after that.

“They did not do a bad job of bargaining”, he said. Cost is not expected to rise as much as it had in contracts before 2009, he said.

Kristin Dziczek, director of the labor and industry group at the Center for Automotive Research, said the overall cost of the two FCA deals was virtually identical, but that the second agreement gave workers less job security in exchange for letting Tier 2 workers eventually earn more money. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles workers voted down their first tentative agreement before a second, more financially lucrative deal was approved and ratified October 22.