Deal reached, closures coming
The Canadian Press - Oct 17, 2019 - Business Buzz

Photo: The Canadian Press
Bill Jackson of St. Louis gives a thumbs up to drivers that wave or honk at United Auto Workers outside the GM Wentzville Assembly Center in Wentzville, Mo., on Wednesday.

DETROIT — A tentative four-year contract with striking General Motors gives workers a mix of pay raises, lump sum payments and an $11,000 signing bonus.

In return, the contract allows GM to proceed with factory closures in Lordstown, Ohio, Warren, Mich., and near Baltimore.

Details were posted Thursday on the union website as factory level union officials met to decide if they’ll approve the deal.

No decision has been made.

Workers went on strike Sept. 16, crippling the company’s U.S. production and costing it an estimated $2 billion.

The Detroit Hamtramck plant which GM wanted to close will stay open and a new electric pickup truck will be built there.

There are retirement incentives and buyouts or workers at the closed plants who didn’t transfer to other GM factories.

The deal also shortens the eight years it takes for new hires to reach full wages and gives temporary workers a full-time job after three years of continuous work. Workers hired after 2007 who are paid a lower wage rate will hit the top wage of $32.32 per hour in four years or less.

It also has a $60,000 early retirement incentive for up to 2,000 eligible workers.

The deal now will be used as a template for talks with GM’s crosstown rivals, Ford and Fiat Chrysler. Normally the major provisions carry over to the other two companies and cover about 140,000 auto workers nationwide. It wasn’t clear which company the union would bargain with next, or whether there would be another strike.

The strike at GM immediately brought the company’s U.S. factories to a halt, and within a week, started to hamper production in Mexico and Canada. Analysts at KeyBanc investment services estimated the stoppage cut GM vehicle production by 250,000 to 300,000 vehicles. That’s too much for the company to make up with overtime or increased assembly line speeds.


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