(WXYZ) — General Motors and the United Auto Workers have reached a tentative contract agreement, the union confirmed on Monday afternoon.
The announcement comes days after the union first reached an agreement with Ford Motor Company on Wednesday night and then Stellantis over the weekend.
The deal with Ford came on day 40 of the strike, and it still has to be ratified by more than 57,000 UAW members for Ford. The same process will have to happen with Stellantis and General Motors.
Check out details of the Ford tentative agreement here.
The agreements would be set to run through April 30, 2028.
According to the UAW, the tentative agreement with General Motors would also include a 25% pay raise over the life of the contract, the same as with Ford and Stellantis. It also includes the restoration of cost-of-living adjustments.
The union also said it will kill "several wage tiers", and will bring two groups into the UAW-GM Master Agreement – at Ultium Cells and GM Subsystems LLC.
Also, the UAW said GM has agreed to make five payments of $500 to current retirees and surviving spouses, the first payments in more than 15 years.
GM workers will return to work while the agreement goes through the ratification process.
"It is so much of a relief knowing that when I go in, the people that I’m talking to as new temp employees, they’re going to be right there with me at the same wages,"said Judith Rice who works for General Motors. "In 2019, we fought for those things and we didn’t get it. This time we’re getting those things. We’ll actually have people that want to come work for the Big Three because the pay is going to be substantially equal to the outside community."
Rice says the tentative deals send a message to other middle class Americans.
" I’m involved in one of the biggest things in the United States of America in 2023. We made history. We changed the rules. We stood up," said Rice.
Other workers say they're cautiously optimistic as they await the details of the contract and what may have been given up in exchange.
"You’re hearing record settlements. You’re hearing record contracts. The sad reality of that is we don’t have anything to base that on," said longtime GM employee Vern Armstead. "The last four contracts I’ve been involved in, we got little or nothing. So as far as reference there’s nothing there and understanding contract negotiations they bring you the highlights. We don’t know what we’re conceding. Preliminarily, it’s exciting. It looks good. It truly is major gains based on the little we’ve gotten in the last four contracts."
GM CEO Mary Barry released this statement:
“GM is pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with the UAW that reflects the contributions of the team while enabling us to continue to invest in our future and provide good jobs in the U.S.,” said GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra. “We are looking forward to having everyone back to work across all of our operations, delivering great products for our customers, and winning as one team.”
According to the UAW, the deal with Ford included a 25% pay raise over the life of the contract, the reinstatement of pre-2009 cost-of-living adjustments, retiree benefits, temp worker raise, wage progression and more.
The initial deadline for a new contract was 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 14. After the contract expired, workers walked out at three plants: GM Wentzville Assembly in Missouri, Stellantis Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio, and the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant, final assembly and paint only.
Since the strike announcement, the Stand Up Strike expanded to 45,000 UAW workers across the country at some of the Big Three’s largest and most profitable plants.
Fain also said he would stop waiting until Fridays to announce new plant strikes, which came to fruition when he announced a strike at the Ford Kentucky Truck Plant first, then back-to-back announcements of strikes at the Stellantis Sterling Heights Assembly on Oct. 23 and GM’s Arlington Assembly on Oct. 24.
Throughout the negotiation process, UAW President Shawn Fain has called for the union to stand together, and the automakers said they proposed offers that they say stretch their limits.
When the UAW announced plans for negotiations, the union said wanted double-digit pay increases, the end of the tiered wage system, better healthcare, a 32-hour work week and more.
The UAW had well over $800 million in the strike fund at the beginning of the strike, and many workers we spoke with during negotiations said they were willing to fight for what they wanted.
The UAW also went on strike against GM in 2019 after failing to reach a tentative contract agreement. That strike lasted from Sept. 15 through Oct. 25 after an agreement was reached on Oct. 16 but ratified nine days later.
