(WXYZ) — Thursday afternoon General Motors presented its 6th counter offer to the United Auto Workers.
GM previously offered a 20% pay raise over the life of the contract, an accelerated path to top wages for in-progression and temporary employees, and Juneteenth as a paid holiday among other things.
While neither the UAW nor GM have revealed what’s inside the offer, GM is calling it compelling.
The company released the following statement to 7 Action News:
“We can confirm that we provided a counter offer to the UAW's most recent proposal - our sixth since the start of negotiations. We believe we have a compelling offer that would reward our team members and allow GM to succeed and thrive into the future. We continue to stand ready and willing to negotiate in good faith 24/7 to reach an agreement.”
-David Barnas, GM Spokesperson
GM workers who remain on picket lines say they're hopeful for what's ahead and are ready to get back to work.
"We just want to be restored from what we were in ‘08. The chickens have come to roost. It's not like we’re asking them to give us something that’s new, just restore us," said Tony Minus who has worked for GM in Pontiac for almost a decade. "I’m feeling confident that we’re going to get what we deserve but at the end of the day I always remember this: Mary Barra makes $111k a day but yet I’m out here in the rain."
As each day passes and the two sides continue going back and forth, the fallout for other auto workers is only growing stronger.
"We are seeing almost 30% of our supply base has initiated some form of layoff. So while it’s not their entire organization, they have started that process," said Julie Fream who is the president and CEO of the MEMA Original Equipment Suppliers.
MEMA is an association that represents 1,000 auto suppliers across the nation. Earlier this week, the association said they surveyed about half of their supplier base about the impacts they're seeing as a result of the UAW strike.
Fream says many of their suppliers who were already under financial stress following the pandemic, chip and labor shortages, are now deploying contingency plans to stay afloat throughout the duration of the strike.
"Their balance sheets are very different today than they were say in 2019 when the last strike occurred. They don’t have the financial fortitude to sustain a long strike. It’s just a different situation than we saw four years ago," said Fream.
Friday UAW president Shawn Fain is expected to give an update via Facebook Live about the status of negotiations. He's also expected to discuss more details on what’s been included in GM's offer. The live will be streamed from the UAW Facebook Page at 2 p.m. EST.
