UAW strike ends in victory after tentative agreement reached with General Motors
Detroit, Michigan - The United States Auto Workers (UAW) union has come to a tentative agreement with General Motors on a new labor contract Monday, ending a six-week strike on major car manufacturers.
The GM deal makes it the final Big Three automaker – after Stellantis and Ford – to reach an agreement with the UAW.
The UAW launched the strike on September 15, marking the first simultaneous work stoppage of the three carmakers.
Workers were pushing for higher wages and other improvements, in particular relating to the transition to making electric vehicles.
Negotiations with GM took place on Sunday night and into the early morning, according to CNBC.
The deal's terms are generally similar to earlier agreements with Ford and Stellantis, including a 25% hourly pay raise and cost-of-living adjustments, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.
United Auto Workers take tentative Big Three agreements into two-week ratification process
At its height, the strike mobilized more than 45,000 of the UAW's 146,000 members working for the Big Three automakers.
"For months we've said that record profits mean record contracts," UAW President Shawn Fain said in an earlier statement after the preliminary deal with Ford was reached.
"And UAW family, our Stand Up Strike has delivered," he added.
In September, US President Joe Biden joined striking workers on the picket line in Michigan, becoming the first sitting president to do so.
While the wage increases in the tentative agreements are lower than the 40% sought by Fain when UAW launched the strike, they are considerably higher than the 9% rise Ford initially proposed in August.
The pacts still need to be ratified by workers in a vote, a process that could take two weeks according to a source close to negotiations last week.
With the Ford and Stellantis deals, members were cleared to return to work at grounded factories.
Cover photo: JIM VONDRUSKA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP