United Auto Workers union members have voted to approve a new contract with General Motors, making the company the first Detroit automaker to get a ratified deal that could end a contentious and lengthy labor dispute.
A vote-tracking spreadsheet on the union’s website shows that with all local union offices reporting, the contract passed by just over 3,400 votes, with 54.7% of the 46,000 UAW members at GM voting in favor.
A union spokesman on Thursday confirmed that the spreadsheet had the official totals. The outcome was closer than expected after the UAW’s celebrations of victories last month on many key demands that led to six weeks of targeted walkouts against GM, Ford and Stellantis, the maker of Jeep, Dodge and Ram vehicles. On Thursday the contract had a big lead in voting at Ford and Stellantis, with 66.7% in favor at Ford and 66.5% voting for it at Stellantis.
Voting continues at Ford through early Saturday with only two large factories in the Detroit area and some smaller facilities left to be counted. At Stellantis, three Detroit-area factories were the only large plants yet to vote, with tallies expected to be complete by Tuesday.
What union members will get
The three contracts, if approved by 146,000 union members, would dramatically raise pay for autoworkers, with increases and cost-of-living adjustments that would translate into a 33% wage gain. Top assembly plant workers would earn roughly $42 per hour when the contracts expire in April of 2028.
Voting continues at Ford through early Saturday, where 66.1% of workers voted in favor so far with only a few large factories still counting. At Stellantis, workers had voted 66.5% in favor of the deal as early Thursday, with some large factories yet to finish casting ballots, according to a vote tracker on the UAW website.
The closer-than-expected outcome comes as some GM workers said that longtime employees were unhappy that they didn’t get larger pay raises like newer workers, and they wanted a bigger pension increase.
Keith Crowell, the local union president in Arlington, said the plant has a diverse group of workers from full- and part-time temporary hires to longtime assembly line employees. Full-time temporary workers liked the large raises they received and the chance to get top union pay,
