General Motors Co’s tentative agreement with the United Auto Workers union offers hourly employees a signing bonus of as much as US$8,000 and better profit-sharing than Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Bloomberg reported.
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Workers at GM’s 63 US facilities must now vote on the agreement for it to take effect.
The contract, which was approved today by plant-level UAW leaders nationwide and now will be sent to the rank-and-file members for ratification, would boost wages for new hires and allow current tier-two employees to reach top-tier wages after eight years of employment.
Asked by reporters when would be a good time for a union, Haslam, who opposed the UAW’s effort previous year, said “while there’s obviously a time for that discussion, it doesn’t feel like this is the appropriate time”.
GM told UAW officials on Wednesday that…
“They expect a better deal because GM has far better operating results”, said Sean McAlinden, chief economist at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Veteran UAW workers at GM have not had an hourly pay increase in a decade, but should get 3 percent base wage hikes in two of the four years of the new pact, if it is ratified. The four-year contract covers 52,600 GM factory workers.
GM has a much lower percentage of second-tier workers than Fiat Chrysler does, at about 21 percent vs. about 45 percent. The UAW needed two tries to win ratification for a new contract at Fiat Chrysler. The revised deal secured larger signing bonuses for senior workers and bigger raises for those in the second tier. Members at the smaller automaker rejected the initial deal.
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It’s not clear whether all workers at GM would get the $8,000 signing bonus.
