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United Auto Workers at General Motors agreed to a deal Thursday that would usher in a new era of record-breaking wage gains and eliminate tiers that paid new workers less than experienced workers.
A union vote tracker showed that more than 54 percent of the 35,000 UAW workers employed by General Motors who voted voted in favor of the contract. The final votes were counted on Thursday.
A General Motors spokesman said the company declined to comment until the union formally announced the results of the ratification process.
Workers at five of the largest factories voted against the deal in recent days because some workers at those factories were disappointed that it did not provide more concessions for retirees, such as reinstating pensions. It forces automakers to increase their contributions to 401(k) retirement accounts.
The agreements represent the biggest compensation gains the union has made in decades, including a 25 percent increase in base pay over 4½ years.
Marc Robinson, a former General Motors economist and strategist, said he was surprised that so many UAW members voted against “such a comprehensive contract,” but blamed that on newly elected union President Shawn Fain, who was in power throughout Treaty publicly made very bold demands and set high standards for what workers could gain.
“[The union] “We probably got a better deal than usual because companies weren’t used to Fain’s strategy, but that risks raising member expectations,” Robinson said. “The close vote reflects the extraordinarily high expectations.”
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The deal comes after a long period in which workers’ wages failed to keep up with inflation and after the union gave up some of its benefits at the time of the Great Recession, when automakers struggled to survive. The union managed to win back many of these benefits in the new agreements, including the restoration of regular cost-of-living wage adjustments to offset inflation. It also eliminated pay scales that had kept new workers on a lower pay scale.
Another reason for the difficult vote among GM workers is that it is possible that local UAW leaders may not have effectively sold the deal to union members, Robinson said. The split may reflect the fact that “there is no unanimity within the UAW,” he said, noting that Fain narrowly unseated his predecessor in a runoff election seven months ago.
The deal also appears to offer UAW workers some protection as the industry transitions to electric vehicles. Workers fear wages and job security will be lower at the industry’s new battery and electric vehicle factories. The GM agreement includes language that includes some of these new factories in the union’s main contracts with automakers.