DETROIT (AP) — Voting on a tentative deal between General Motors and the United Auto Workers union that ended a six-week strike against the company appears too close after final counts were announced Wednesday at several GM factories. .
The union has not yet released the final vote total, but staff at several primary plants who have finished voting in recent days have rejected the four-year, eight-month agreement by wide margins. However, a plant in Arlington, Texas, with about 5,000 employees voted more than 60% in favor of the deal, according to tallies announced Wednesday.
Tracking votes in the UAW on Wednesday shows agreement across 958 votes. But those totals don’t include votes from GM’s assembly plants in Fort Wayne, Indiana; Lansing Delta Township, Michigan, and a powertrain plant in Toledo, Ohio, voted against the deal, according to local union officials.
In most cases, votes against the contract ranged from 55% to about 60%.
But in Arlington, the vote was 63 percent in favor, with 60. 4 percent of production staff approving the deal and only about 65 percent of professional staff voting in favor, making the count close with GM’s vote ending Thursday.
Spokespeople for the union and General Motors declined to comment as the vote continues.
It’s unclear exactly what will happen next, but local union officials do not expect an immediate strike if the contract is rejected.
Voting continues at Ford through Saturday morning, where the deal is passing with 66. 1% voting in favor so far, with some giant plants still counting.
The contract was approved by an overwhelming majority at Jeep maker Stellantis, where voting continues through Tuesday. The union’s vote tracking survey showed on Wednesday that 79. 5% voted in favor, while many giant factories have not yet finished.
Workers at some of GM’s smaller facilities have yet to vote and final tallies are expected to be announced Thursday night.
Keith Crowell, president of the Arlington local union, said the plant has a varied organization of staff, ranging from full-time and part-time transient staff to long-standing meeting line staff. Full-time transient staff appreciated the significant raises they got and the opportunity to earn the most productive union wage, he said. But many veteran employees don’t believe the rapid 11% pay increases will be enough to make up for the concessions the company made in 2008, he said.
The union agreed to reduce salaries for new employees and waived cost-of-living changes and across-the-board annual wage increases in 2008 to help automakers emerge from the severe monetary upheavals of the Great Recession. GM and Stellantis, then Chrysler, went bankrupt. , funded through the government.
In the contracts with the three automakers, senior staff will get an across-the-board increase of 25% over the duration of the contracts, with an initial increase of 11%. Including cost-of-living adjustments, they’ll get about 33 percent. , the union said.
The contract includes measures to finish lowering salary levels for new hires, reducing the number of years needed to reach the highest salary. Many sought-after new hires explained getting advantages in 401(k) pension plans. But the company has agreed to give a 10% year-consistent contribution to the 401(k).
At other plants, local union officials said old GM staff were dissatisfied that they had not received bigger pay raises than new staff, and asked for a bigger increase in their salaries. Retirement.
Tony Totty, president of the local union at the Toledo propulsion plant, said the environment is right to ask for more from the company.
At a GM pickup truck plant in Flint, Michigan, which voted 51. 8 percent against the contract, employee Tommy Wolikow said older staff received bigger raises because new hires and transient staff received so much more. “This salary factor is not enough to decrease them,” he said. However, he said the contract was close and he would do so with a few small additions.
Wolikow, who was hired through GM in 2008, said he was satisfied with a 10 percent annual company contribution to his 401(k) plan than with a justified benefit pension.
Thousands of UAW members joined picket lines in targeted actions against Detroit automakers for six weeks before long-delayed tentative agreements were reached last month. Instead of striking against one company, the union targeted individual plants at the three automakers. At its peak last year a month, about 46,000 of Detroit’s 146,000 corporate union employees were picketing.
Of the four GM plants that went on strike, staff at one, in Arlington, Texas, approved the contract. Workers in Wentzville, Missouri; Lansing Delta Township, Michigan; and Spring Hill, Tennessee; voted against.