It's official: UAW ratifies new 4-year labor contract with General Motors

The UAW announced a short while ago that the final voting results were in for the new General Motors labor contract and the vote passed by a margin of 2 to 1. According to the announcement by the union management, 65% of production workers voted to ratify the new GM labor agreement while 63% of skilled trade workers voted in favor of the new contract. This new contract affects roughly 48,500 hourly workers in the United States and the move to ratify the deal makes General Motors the first of the Detroit Big 3 automakers to finalize the new labor contract as all three are facing the same talks – although they are all expected to take different routes.

“The agreement is a win-win for our employees and our company. It underscores the alignment between the UAW and the new GM in our efforts to drive long-term success, and gives all of our employees a direct stake in the quality of our products and our performance,” said GM CEO Dan Akerson. “GM and the UAW remain steadfast in our commitment to strengthen the U.S. manufacturing base, create good-paying jobs and build the high-quality, fuel-efficient cars and trucks our customers deserve.”

Ford Motor Company, on the other hand, has had enough money to dole out huge bonuses to company executives lately and with business going very, very well for the Blue Oval group, the UAW is most certainly expecting to see that big bonuses paid to the workers who build the cars and trucks. Ford is reportedly the main concern of the UAW negotiators right now as they prepare for what could be a battle with the Chrysler Group and boss Sergio Marchionne. In the past while working with European auto worker unions, Marchionne has played hardball – going so far as to close plants in times of labor issues.

The Chrysler Group is much smaller than General Motors and because of that, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne expects not to have to match the details of the GM-UAW deal. Like GM, Marchionne hopes to avoid costly annual raises until the company is on better financial terms but unlike GM, which avoided annual cost of living raises by offering hefty bonuses – Chrysler cannot afford those huge bonuses.

TorqueNews will continue covering the Detroit labor talks, bringing you any news as it becomes available!

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