- General Motors plans to invest about $13 billion in U.S. factories through April 2028, the United Auto Workers union announced as part of its latest tentative agreement with the automaker.
- Details of the tentative agreement were released Saturday after local UAW leaders agreed to the pact with GM, which still needs to be ratified by a simple majority of the automaker’s 46,000 union members.
- Like the UAW’s tentative agreement with Stellantis and Ford, the deal includes 25% raises, bonuses and other expanded benefits, as well as a $5,000 ratification bonus.
Members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike at a General Motors assembly plant that produces the U.S. automaker’s full-size sport utility vehicles on October 24, 2023. This is a further expansion of the strike in Arlington, Texas.
James Breeden | Portal
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors plans to invest about $13 billion in U.S. factories through April 2028, the United Auto Workers union said as part of its latest tentative agreement with the automaker.
GM has already announced some of its planned investments, such as $4 billion at Orion Assembly in suburban Detroit and $2 billion in Spring Hill, Tennessee, for new electric vehicles. Others, such as $1.25 billion for a future electric vehicle plant in Lansing Grand River, are new.
Many of the new investments include hundreds of millions of dollars for assembly plants to support or expand volume, as well as engine and component plants.
Details of the tentative agreement were released Saturday after local UAW leaders and GM approved the pact, which still needs to be ratified by a simple majority of the union’s 46,000 members with the automaker. GM was the last Detroit automaker to reach a tentative agreement, following Ford Motor and Chrysler parent Stellantis.
The union discloses investment and product details to provide members with job security.
GM’s U.S. investments under the terms of the preliminary 4½ risk compare with the union’s announced $8.1 billion at Ford and $18.9 billion at Stellantis, including $6.2 billion dollars to previously announced parts plants in Kokomo, Indiana.
The details disclosed by the union for GM did not include previously announced billions of dollars in investments in four joint venture battery cell factories in the United States, including three future plants.
GM declined to comment on the details released, pointing to a statement from CEO Mary Barra when the tentative deal was initially announced: “GM is pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with the UAW that includes the contributions “We will continue to invest in our future and create good jobs in the United States,” she said. “We look forward to getting everyone across our operations back to work, delivering great products for our customers and winning as one team.”
The tentative collective agreement was announced Monday after about six weeks of targeted union strikes against GM, Stellantis and Ford, also known as the “Big Three” automakers. The walkouts began Sept. 15 after the sides failed to reach agreements with automakers covering 146,000 UAW members within a strike deadline.
“There is a reason why the Big Three and their allies feel like they have just been taken to the cleaners. This contract brings wage increases and economic benefits like we have never seen before,” UAW Vice President Mike Booth said during an online broadcast Saturday. “The profits from this contract are worth more than four times the last contract.”
Like the UAW’s tentative agreement with Stellantis and Ford, the deal includes 25% wage increases, bonuses and other expanded benefits for auto workers, such as profit-sharing payments and a $5,000 ratification bonus.
The 25% increases include an 11% increase upon ratification, followed by a 3% increase over the next three years and then a 5% increase in September 2027.
At GM, the union also achieved great success by eliminating various tiers or levels of workers who were paid the same or similar wages as their traditional counterparts in the assembly plants. UAW President Shawn Fain said some workers would receive an immediate 89% raise if approved by members.
“One of our central goals in this round of negotiations was to eliminate the tiers,” Fain said during the broadcast. “Although we didn’t win everything, we made tremendous progress at GM. We have done more to eliminate the pay gap than any of the Big Three.”
The new workers added to the agreement include employees of GM’s battery cell joint venture Ultium Cells, Fain confirmed again on Saturday. The battery workers would get a raise of between $6 and $8 an hour, he said.
Fain on Saturday reiterated the union’s plans to use record contracts with GM, Ford and Stellantis as leverage to unionize other automakers.
“We are not shy or silent about our plans: Our goal is to spend the next few years organizing auto workers across the country,” Fain said. “The Big Three are not the only car companies making record profits. Autoworkers at Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen, Hyundai and Tesla are also earning record contracts.”
Toyota Motor announced plans to increase wages at its U.S. factories earlier this week. The new rates would result in Kentucky manufacturing workers at peak rates receiving a pay increase of about 9% to $34.80 an hour – still below the peak rate of more than $40 an hour The scope of the UAW’s tentative agreements with the Detroit automakers.
UAW members at Ford have already begun voting on this tentative agreement. Notably, 82% of workers at Ford’s Michigan assembly plant voted for the pact this week. The plant in suburban Detroit was one of the first to strike, along with other GM and Stellantis assembly plants.
UAW members at Stellantis and GM are expected to vote on the deals in the next few weeks.