UAW and GM extend contract until November 20

United Auto Workers leaders in Louisville are holding two information meetings Sunday to outline terms of the tentative national contract reached between Ford Motor Co. and the UAW.

The four-year agreement approved by union leadership now goes to union members for ratification.

One production worker at a GM parts warehouse, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, said fellow workers are expressing resentment toward skilled trade workers.

Schwartz said GM could agree to revise just the portion of the contract that affects the skilled trades. “The strike option is pretty much off the table at this point, I think”. A rejection can be overruled by the UAW by skilled trades workers in the event the union’s global Executive Board finds they voted against the deal for motives which aren’t exceptional to skilled trades.

Most Ford workers would get an $8,500 signing bonus and $1,750 in additional bonuses once the contract is ratified. “Estrada understand this really has been a long and hard procedure, but it’s significant we address these significant problems raised by the skilled trades”.

Estrada said November 20 is the new deadline for ratification of the provisional deal.

Estrada said during the call that the skilled-trades workers’ complaints included a mix of economic issues – being excluded from a $60,000 retirement buyout offered to a few production workers, for example – and non-economic ones, such as a consolidation of worker classifications that could require expanded duties, the sources said. The first major plant to vote, MI Assembly, approved the deal by 81%. The union and each of the Detroit Three automakers agreed in separate labor contracts to an eight-year process from hiring to top pay, which will be about $30 per hour by 2019.

The deal comprises the first hourly wage increase in nearly a decade for experienced workers and two 4 percent lump sum payments in years two and four. GM’s additionally intends to invest $1.9 billion at 12 USA facilities through 2019, creating or keeping 3,300 occupations.

The labor deal, which must be ratified by union rank-and-file workers, will result in new vehicles, engines, and transmissions, plus a commitment from Ford for 8,500 new or secured jobs.

To note, GM paid an average of $9,000 to the average UAW member in profit sharing in 2015 alone, according to the Center for Automotive Research.