Nov. 16 (UPI) — United Auto Workers members voted Thursday to ratify the union’s labor contract deal with General Motors, according to the UAW’s vote tracker.
The union members were split 54.74% in favor of ratifying the deal to 45.26% against in the contentious vote as a majority of big GM UAW plants rejected the tentative contract agreement that ended the UAW’s strike but the total of smaller plants approving the labor deal overcame the no votes at the larger facilities.
There was no immediate comment from GM and the UAW.
Both the Ford and Stellantis ratification votes so far are overwhelming yes, but the UAW has not yet officially announced ratification results.
As of Thursday the UAW vote trackers show Stellantis workers approving the new agreement 81.9% to 18.1%.
Ford UAW workers as of Thursday had voted 66.7%-33.3%.
The ratification votes ended a roughly six-week UAW strike against the so-called “Big Three” automakers.
GM reached the tentative agreement with the UAW ending the strike Oct. 30. The targeted strikes cost GM an estimated $800 million while Ford lost an estimated $1.2 billion.
The UAW’s tentative deal with Stellantis was reached Oct. 28.
The UAW sought what union President Shawn Fein called record contracts after the companies posted record profits.
The deals fell short of the more than 40% wage hikes sought by the UAW, but still achieved historic wage hikes along with the reinstatement of an automatic cost-of-living that the UAW gave up during the 2008 recession that nearly put two of the Detroit three automakers out of business.
