Final Agreement. With a little more difficulty than expected, workers at Detroit’s Big Three (General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, which acquired Chrysler) have ratified the collective bargaining agreements that brought an end to a historic automobile strike in the United States, the first that affected all three companies at the same time. The agreements with the companies are similar and in all three cases include large salary increases and other benefits.
The strike was a success for the nearly 150,000 auto workers affiliated with the United Auto Workers (UAW) in the three groups mentioned above. They found themselves pushed out of the middle class by years of accumulated loss of purchasing power as they made heavy sacrifices in the face of threats to business viability in the midst of the Great Recession. The new agreements provide for salary increases of more than 30% in four and a half years, as well as further improvements in working conditions, employment guarantees and new rights.
The victory is not limited to General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. The agreements signed by the three companies had a contagion effect on other automobile companies based in the United States, but whose workers are not unionized. Toyota, Hyundai and Honda have agreed to immediate large pay increases for their employees.
Despite all the benefits contained in the new collective bargaining agreements, employees at several General Motors workplaces voted against them, raising concerns about the bottom line throughout the company. Finally, a voting table on the union’s website shows that after including data from all centers, the agreement was ratified with 19,683 votes in favor (54.74%) and 16,274 against. A union spokesman confirmed to the AP on Thursday that the table included GM’s official totals.
In Ford’s case, not all data from all centers has been taken into account, but the tracking table shows a two-thirds majority in favor of the deal, just as with Stellantis. Although voting at Ford continues through Saturday, only two large Detroit-area factories and a few smaller plants remain to be counted. At Stellantis, the three major Detroit-area factories are the only ones that have not yet voted, and the recount is expected to end Tuesday. In both cases, ratification is seen as a given, albeit with greater resistance than other collective agreements this year, such as the truck drivers’ agreement with UPS or the Hollywood screenwriters’ agreement with major studios.
The youngest workers of the three companies are the biggest beneficiaries of the new agreements, which has led to the agreement being rejected in companies that employ a larger proportion of older workers. They also achieve important improvements, but not as much as the new employees, who were previously punished with a double pay scale for eight years and are now punished for only three years.
UAW President Shawn Fain won the support of public opinion in a strike-hostile country by showcasing the companies’ record profits and their directors’ multimillion-dollar salaries. He hit the companies with a carrot-and-stick strike strategy in which he rewarded or punished the companies depending on how the negotiations went.
Although there are differences between the various agreements, the hourly wage increase through April 2028 is 25% for all and, with some adjustments for cost of living, more than 30%, up to more than $40 (38). euros) per hour for the typical worker. The increases in starting salaries and those of the lowest paid employees are significantly higher. The agreements also include pension improvements and restrictions on temporary employment, shorten the duration of the double pay scale (the transition of new workers to the general pay scale takes place in three years instead of eight), and recognize the right of workers to strike in protest against factory closures and other workplace safety measures. The salary improvements from this agreement are greater than those achieved in the last 22 years, according to the UAW.
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