Could UAW’s GM vote be nail-biter?
DETROIT – A modest majority of UAW union workers voting Tuesday chose to ratify a proposed four-year contract with General Motors, but two more union locals rejected the deal.
On Tuesday, Local 598, which represents 2,573 workers at a truck assembly plant in Flint, Michigan, approved the deal, with 72 percent of workers voting favorably. Production workers there ratified it by an even wider margin, but that was partially offset by skilled trades workers, 60 percent of whom voted against the contract.
By mid-afternoon, Local 276, with 4,125 members at an assembly plant in Arlington, Texas, posted on its Facebook page that the agreement was rejected by 51 percent of workers there.
Production workers at GM’s transmission plant in Toledo, Ohio, narrowly approved the pact, with 51 percent of workers voting in favor, although 59 percent of skilled trades workers there voted no. Local 160, representing UAW workers at the GM tech center in Warren, Michigan, also voted no, with 62 percent of workers rejecting the deal, according to the local’s Facebook page. About 1,150 people voted there.
At Local 651, which represents a parts warehouse in Davison, Michigan, and other facilities in the nearby Flint area, 91 percent of the 564 workers there voted to ratify the contract.
For the contract to be ratified, a majority of those voting must vote yes. About 52,700 are eligible to vote. Voting ends Friday.
Over the weekend, more than 60 percent of workers at UAW Local 31 in Kansas City, Kansas, voted to reject the contract, but workers at UAW Local 652 in Lansing, Michigan, and Local 174 in Ypsilanti, Michigan, voted in favor of the agreement.
UAW leaders declined again to comment while voting continues. Privately, however, they have said they are concerned about complaints from workers at four component plants who will not see their wages rise to parity with workers at assembly, power train and stamping plants.
In addition, some skilled trades workers have expressed unhappiness that they are not eligible for a $60,000 retirement incentive. There are concerns that the contract will gradually broaden the range of jobs tradesmen are required to perform.
Only production workers who are ready to retire can take advantage of the retirement sweetener. In the 2011 contract, skilled trades veterans near retirement were offered a $65,000 lump sum that was not available to production workers.
If the four-year contract is ratified, all UAW workers at GM would receive an $8,000 signing bonus and a raise. Entry-level production workers currently paid between $15.78 and $19.28 per hour would see their wages increase to between $17 and $22.50 per hour and would eventually earn about $29 per hour.
Workers hired before 2007 would receive 3 percent raises in the first and third years of the contract and 4 percent lump-sum bonuses in the second and fourth years of the agreement.