UPDATE 17.10.19, 3:30 p.m.m: Automotive News reports this afternoon that the terms are discussed in the proposed agreement. The UAW GM Council met today for most of the day, but has not yet made a recommendation for a vote on ratification. Under the terms of the interim agreement, the Hamtramck plant near Detroit, which currently employs about 800 people to build the Cadillac CT6 and Chevrolet Impala, would not close as planned and GM would build its future electric pick-up truck there; but the Lordstown assembly plant in Ohio, with transmission sites in Michigan and Maryland, would close permanently. GM made a statement to AN in which it said it would continue its battery production projects in Ohio and invest $9 billion in U.S. plants. The longest national strike against a Detroit automaker since 1970 has become a political event. Democratic presidential candidates joined the UAW`s strike lines, which had sought to win votes for the Union in the Swing States of the Midwest. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump lobbied GM chief Mary Barra before the strike to maintain jobs at a Car Plant in Lordstown, Ohio, which she had targeted for the closure. The United Auto Workers (UAW) union announced an interim agreement with General Motors after weeks of negotiations and one of the longest strikes in the company`s history.
The agreement will include salary increases, a ratification bonus of at least $9,000, GM`s promises to create or maintain 9,000 jobs over the next four years, a way for temporary workers to become permanent, and other elements. About 200 local union leaders representing GM employees are expected in Detroit on Thursday for a National Council meeting to vote on the provisional agreement to join the UAW and the date of the end of the strike. “Some progress has been made in the Daimler truck negotiations, but it has fallen well short of an interim agreement that was to be presented to our members. The parties agreed to renew the collective agreement on a day-to-day basis and to announce additional bargaining meetings. Terry Dittes UAW Vice President and Director of the Heavyweight Department The agreement was reached only after a fierce strike, which included a dispute over whether the company or the union would pay the health costs of the strikers, and GM issued a court order that prevented the picket lines from blocking access to the company`s assembly plant in Spring Hill. Tennessee. Ten strikers were arrested in two incidents. Many suppliers started a few days after the strike with temporary layoffs, and GM`s plants in Canada and one Ohio plant, represented by an electricians` union and not the UAW, were shut down because they had only a few parts. The strike began on September 16, when some 48,000 UAW-era workers at GM were seeking higher wages, greater job security, more profits and health care protection. Other topics were the fate of the plants, which GM suggested might close, and the use of temporary workers.
The union responded the next day that GM could have avoided a strike if it had not “waited only two hours before the contract expired to make what we consider to be the first serious offer.” It could be a challenge to approve the new four-year contract in the rankings. Last year, GM outraged union workers by threatening to close four U.S. plants, even though it was proposed to keep at least one of those plants open.