General Motors (GM) and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union said on Friday they had reached a tentative agreement on a labor contract that includes a new profit-sharing formula for the automaker’s 49,000 hourly employees.
Details of the settlement were being withheld, pending ratification meeting with local union leaders. The union’s old agreement expired on Wednesday, but the union was barred from striking under the terms of the US$49.5 billion bailout of GM in 2009.
GM officials had said their main goal was to contain any growth of the company’s labor costs.
“In these uncertain economic times for American workers and faced with the globalization of the economy, the UAW approached these negotiations with new strategies and fought for and achieved some of our major goals for our members, including significant investments and products for our plants,” union president Bob King said in a statement after the settlement was reached.
“When GM was struggling, our members shared in the sacrifice. Now that the company is posting profits again, our members want to share in the success. To be clear, GM is prosperous because of its workers. It’s the workers and the quality of the work they do, along with the sacrifices they made, that have returned this company to profitability,” said UAW vice president Joe Ashton, who directs the union’s General Motors Department.
“The wages and benefits we negotiated in this tentative agreement reflect the fact that it was UAW members who helped turn this company around,” he said.
“We wanted a contract that provides our members with a real share of the success of the company and ensures its continued success,” Ashton added.
GM vice president Cathy Clegg said the company and union “used a creative problem solving approach” to fashion an agreement that addresses the needs of employees and positions our business for long-term success.
“We worked hard for a contract that recognizes the realities of today’s marketplace, enabling GM to continue to invest in US manufacturing and provide good jobs to thousands of American,” she said.
Ashton said the UAW had turned aside changes to the company’s pension and rejected major concessions in healthcare, but added that the union has made some significant improvements to healthcare benefits.”
In addition, the agreement includes improved profit sharing with far greater transparency than in the past, he said.
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