The agreement between the UAW and GM, agreed on Oct. 30, ends a strike that lasted more than six weeks and cost the automaker about $1.3 billion.
General Motors (GM) workers in the United States have approved by a narrow margin, 54.7% in favor and 45.2% againstthe collective agreement agreed upon by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union and the company on October 30.
The agreement between the UAW and GM ends a strike that lasted more than six weeks and cost the automaker about $1.3 billion.
According to figures released this Thursday by the UAW, approximately 55% of 36,000 workers of GM voted in favor of the deal, which includes a 25% salary increase spread over the next four years.
Approval of the deal was closer than expected after workers at seven of GM’s 11 assembly plants in the country voted against it.
But the support obtained by the agreement of the Texas plants in Arlington, with 60.8% in favor of 3,374 votes, became the key for the ratification.
An agreement that does not convince all workers
Many of the workers at these plants, who have been with the company for many years, believe that the agreement reached by their union representatives is more useful for new employees than veterans.
Meanwhile, voting continues between Ford and Stellantis workers to decide the future of their respective collective agreements, which also include a 25% pay increase over the next four years.
In Ford, 66.7% of 30,783 votes approved the agreement while in Stellantis the accepted figure was 66.5%.
UAW President Shawn Fain, who for the first time in the history of the union declared a simultaneous and progressive strike of three major American manufacturers (GM, Ford and Stellantis), insisted that the agreement was the best that could be done. .
Fain also acknowledged that it’s not just what the union wants from the companies but that he believes it has prepared the UAW with more negotiating power for four yearss, if the collective agreement currently approved expires.
