The United Auto Workers announced Friday it has voted to ratify the General Motors Co. tentative agreement that will be effective Monday, after the union spent two weeks researching why skilled trades workers rejected the deal.
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The decision comes almost a month after the Detroit automaker and the UAW agreed to a tentative deal and after a two-week review into why a majority of skilled trades workers voted “no” on the deal.
Formal notification to GM was delayed because skilled trades workers opposed the company’s bid to reduce the number of skill classifications particularly among mechanical crafts such as millwrights, pipefitters, machine fix people and tool makers. On Wednesday, UAW leaders said that with three-fourths of the vote counted, 52 percent of workers were against the new pact.
The union’s UAW-GM Council – made up of local-chapter officials from around the country – decided in its meeting Friday that the changes should quell the skilled-trades workers concerns, the union said.
In voting that ended earlier this month, more than 55 percent of UAW members voted to accept the agreement.
Based on the fact that the majority of the UAW-GM membership ratified the National Agreement and that the Skilled Trades membership concerns about protecting the core trades classifications and seniority rights have now been met, the IEB took action to formally ratify the UAW-GM National Agreement. UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada said in a letter Friday evening to union leaders and shop chairs that the board has deemed the contract ratified.
The union’s constitution requires passage by both production and skilled-trades workers for ratification, but allows the worldwide Executive Board to override a no vote.
Hourly wages account for slightly less than half of total labor costs for UAW workers, which include healthcare and other benefits.
GM also committed to spend about $8 billion across 12 USA facilities over the life of the contract.
The delay has led to a few tension between production and skilled trades workers, with a few production workers upset because they wanted their $8,000 ratification bonuses sooner.
The deal also includes a 3 percent wage increase for traditional members for the first year, and a 4 percent lump sum raise in the second year, followed by a 3 percent wage rise in the third year and a 4 percent lump sum raise for the last year of the contract.
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Meanwhile, the fate of Ford Motor Co.’s tentative agreement with the UAW could be determined later Friday, with a tight vote coming down to the results from an F-150 assembly plant near Detroit.
