3 UAW deals ratified, but GM vote tight

The Detroit 3 say their newly ratified contracts with the UAW make working in their factories pay better than 70 percent of other U.S. jobs—in all fields, not just manufacturing. The deals give immediate $5,000 bonuses and push top wages above $40 an hour in 2028.

More than 35,000 of the auto makers' hourly workers still voted no.

While the contracts passed by wide margins at Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis, there was widespread opposition at General Motors. GM's contract passed by fewer than 3,300 votes—less than half the margin for a far less lucrative deal in 2019.

Even at the other two auto makers, many of the workers who went on strike at big plants in Kentucky and Ohio opposed the agreements.

The discontent highlights the elevated expectations among members during this particularly bitter round of negotiations. A desire for better retirement benefits and even higher wages for top earners were among the points of contention expressed as workers voted at union halls across the country this month.

"You cannot treat the rank and file as uniform in terms of how they approach bargaining priorities and what their interests are," Marick Masters, a labor relations expert at Wayne State University in Detroit, told Automotive News. "The union is divided and has a lot of different factions in it, and it cannot be expected that it would approach these kinds of questions uniformly."

Still, the successful ratification is a victory for UAW President Shawn Fain, who was elected eight months ago by a small percentage of the union's membership after promising to negotiate more aggressively. Despite a costly six-week strike and sharp accusations from both sides, the negotiations ended nearly a month earlier than in 2019.

"The strategy the union used and the tactics associated with it caught the companies off guard," Masters said. "They really executed a strategy that pitted the companies against each other and caused them to bargain against themselves, and that worked to their advantage."

The GM deal was saved by component plants, parts distribution centers and battery plants, where workers who stand to get the largest raises canceled out opposition from assembly plant employees who already were earning top wages.

The deal received support from about 81 percent of workers at GM Components Holding plants and parts distribution centers, as well as 96 percent of those at two electric vehicle battery plants. The union says some of them get immediate raises of up to 89 percent, compared with 11 percent for veteran assembly workers.

The wage gains for newer employees at a GM parts distribution center in Hudson, Wis., will be "life-changing," said Steve Frisque, president of UAW Local 722, where 93 percent of workers voted to ratify the deal. Frisque said he understands the desire among workers with more seniority to push for greater gains, including retirement benefits, but he believes the union was able to achieve everything it could in this round of talks.

"There's only so much you're going to get in negotiations," he said. "Four years from now, we'll go for the rest."

Meanwhile, 53 percent of workers at GM's assembly, metal and propulsion plants voted no. At UAW Local 14, which represents hourly workers at GM's Toledo Propulsion Systems plant, 56 percent were against the deal.

Local 14 President Tony Totty said the Ohio plant has many employees nearing retirement who are concerned the benefits they'll get after that don't go far enough.

GM agreed to increase its contribution into employees' 401(k) retirement accounts to 10 percent from 6.4 percent and increase contributions for those who will get traditional pensions by $1,800 annually, the union said in a document highlighting the key contract changes.

The contract provides gains that workers are pleased with, but there's "a glaring hole in it, and that's for the pension," Totty told Automotive News.

"This is a better deal for somebody who doesn't even work for our company yet than for somebody who just put in 30 years," he said. "Now's the time to fix it."

Some veteran assembly workers will reach retirement before the full wage increase takes effect in 2028, after years of making concessions on pay and retirement benefits, said Mike Huerta, president of UAW Local 602. Huerta represents workers at GM's Lansing Delta Township assembly plant in Michigan, where only 39 percent voted yes.

Newer workers who have a 401(k) instead of a pension also are concerned they won't have health care coverage after retiring, Huerta said. How employees view the contract's economic gains depends in large part on where they are in their careers and what they will mean for their individual families and circumstances, he said.

"We now have a contract that has many segments getting pieces of what they wanted, but not everything," Huerta said.

The Stellantis and Ford deals both passed by more comfortable 2-to-1 margins. The only Stellantis locals against, where most voted no, represent two Mopar parts depots slated to close and the Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio, one of the plants that started the UAW's strike Sept. 15.

The Stellantis pact included a few provisions not found in the other two contracts that may have helped it get ratified. The UAW won a 2027 reopening of the idled Belvidere Assembly plant in Illinois, allowing thousands of workers to potentially return home. It also got the company to extend a car lease program to hourly workers that previously was reserved for management.

The union said Stellantis more than doubled the value of its contract offer after the strike began, while Ford added half to its proposal.

At Ford's Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan, home of the profitable F-150 pickup, 78 percent of workers supported the contract.

"The people that worked for Ford collectively thought this out and approved it because it made sense," Nick Kottalis, Dearborn Truck's building chairman, told Automotive News. "Those numbers show a vast appreciation for the work the UAW and Ford did."

Fain last week continued to tout the contracts as a victory that would help the union organize other auto makers to bolster its ranks.

In a meeting of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in Washington, D.C., Fain highlighted recent moves by Toyota, Hyundai and Honda to increase workers' pay in response to what the union negotiated with the Detroit 3.

"We're very proud of that," Fain said.

All three deals include 25 percent pay raises through April 2028. The contracts also restore cost-of-living adjustments that, combined with the raises, are expected to ultimately boost worker pay more than 30 percent.

The deals cut the time it takes to make top wages to three years from eight, eliminate lower tiers of pay for some workers, increase vacation time and boost retirement contributions. The union also negotiated some back pay for striking members.

UAW leaders have said there is more value in each year of the agreements than in the entirety of the last four-year contracts signed in 2019.

"In many respects the contracts are record in terms of the economic gains and what it did to promote equity across the work force in terms of pay," Masters said. "Even those that got relatively less on a percentage basis still got a significant increase compared to what they've gotten in previous contracts. While the gains may not have recouped all of the losses they suffered during 15 painful years of retrenchment in the industry, they were starting from a very low base and got as much as they could in this round of negotiations — more than people thought was attainable at the beginning."

Although organizing nonunion auto makers will be a challenge for Fain, Masters said the strategies employed in the 2023 contract talks will have long-lasting impacts for unions across the country.

"The UAW really set the tone in terms of labor-management relations and how unions approach negotiations," Masters said. "They're no longer on the defensive. ... They dominated the narrative and they changed the focus. It's now unions on the offensive."

Vince Bond Jr. and Lindsay VanHulle contributed to this report.