UAW members attend a rally in support of the labor union strike on the UAW Local 551 hall on the South Side on October 7, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois.
Jim Vondruska | Getty Images
DETROIT — The United Auto Employees achieved record contracts with the Detroit automakers following contentious talks and roughly six weeks of targeted labor strikes. But not the entire union’s members are satisfied with the tentative agreements.
The deals, which were advisable for ratification by UAW leaders, were on pace to pass as of Tuesday morning, but support is narrowing. The agreements have received notable rejections at major Ford Motor and, especially, General Motors plants in recent days. Employees at Chrysler owner Stellantis are still in early voting but have to this point largely backed the contract.
A minimum of three major assembly plants representing 9,730, or 21%, of GM’s 46,000 UAW-represented employees have voted against the pact. They include 61% against at Lansing Delta Township plant in Michigan, which builds Buick and Chevrolet crossovers; 67.5% rejection at a Cadillac and GMC crossover plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee; and 52% opposed at GM’s Flint, Michigan, truck plant. A handful of other smaller plants even have voted against the deal.
At Ford, the automaker’s Kentucky Truck Plant — its largest by way of employment and revenue — had 54.5% of members vote against it.
The UAW reached tentative deals with each of the automakers, so each is voted on individually. A number of could fail, while one other ratifies. They usually are not contingent on each other.
Reasons behind the disapproval vary, in accordance with industry experts and UAW members who spoke with CNBC. Veteran employees are frightened about not receiving as much as newer employees under the terms of the deals, including retirement advantages. They’re also concerned about language within the tentative agreements. There’s also lingering distrust in union leadership after past corruption scandals of former leaders.
Others cite inflated expectations from UAW President Shawn Fain regarding 40% pay increases, traditional pensions and retiree health look after all, the elimination of “tiers” and a 32-hour workweek.
“I do not think the tentative agreement goes far enough. I feel it’s divisive. It doesn’t do away with the tiers, and it doesn’t meet all of our needs as a complete,” said Brian Keller, a former UAW presidential candidate in several past elections and an outspoken employee from Stellantis’ Mopar parts operations. “You bought to recollect, we were stagnant from the time of the bankruptcy to 2015. We didn’t get no wage increases.”
Record deals, with some caveats
The UAW’s tentative agreements with automakers include:
- 25% wage increases, including 11% upon ratification
- reinstatement of cost-of-living adjustments to pay
- a three-year progression to top wages as an alternative of eight years
- billions in recent investments
- the inclusion of some battery employees
Major targets they didn’t include:
- 40% general wage increases
- complete elimination of wage and profit tiers
- a 32-hour workweek
- post-retirement health care coverage and traditional pensions for all
In line with UAW voting trackers, Ford is closest to ratifying the pact, with roughly 65% approval, as most major plants have already voted. GM had 52% of employees voting to this point in support of ratification as of Tuesday morning. Nevertheless, that did not include the Lansing Delta Township plant voting against the pact. Stellantis, which stays in early voting, currently has roughly 82% of members in support of the pact. Most of its major plants still must vote.
The UAW didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment on the voting results or when the union expects voting to finish. Each local UAW chapter conducts its own voting.
The union has touted the deals as achieving $23 billion in recent gains for the union — 4 times greater than through the last negotiations in 2019. There have been also more gains for veteran employees than the whole lot of the last deals, and a historic step in achieving “equal pay for equal work,” a cornerstone of organized labor, in accordance with the union.
The union prioritized reinstatement of cost-of-living adjustments, or COLA, over increases in some bonuses, including ratification ones that dropped from as much as $11,000 through the last round of negotiations 4 years ago to $5,000 under these tentative agreements.
What’s Fain telling members?
Fain, who spoke Tuesday during a U.S. Senate committee hearing, has repeatedly said UAW members are the very best power within the union and can ultimately resolve whether the deals ratify. But Fain last week conducted an internet broadcast in an try and smooth over some concerns, including about COLA, bonuses and other issues.
“I actually consider these are record contracts and are a serious victory for our movement,” Fain said Wednesday amid voting. “There have been many within the media and in the company class who were saying we didn’t know what we were doing. They usually thought we would never get a deal. But then we got all three.”
Keller, who ran for president against Fain but supported him during a runoff election against incumbent UAW President Ray Curry, said he also has concerns over consolidation of Mopar parts facilities, potential layoffs in the long run and other language within the contract.
Timothy Orner, who works in fleet operations at Stellantis’ Jeep complex in Toledo, is anxious about changes to 401(k) advantages which might be based on 40-hour work weeks at a ten% company contribution compared with a 6.4% contribution based on annual pay, including time beyond regulation.
UAW President Shawn Fain greets members attending a rally in support of the labor union strike on the UAW Local 551 hall on the South Side on October 7, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois.
Jim Vondruska | Getty Images
“Simply because it is a double-digit number, it doesn’t make it higher,” said Orner, who was among the many first so-called Tier 2 employees to be hired in 2009 with no traditional pension and lower advantages. “There is no more ’30 and out.’ They need you to work longer, to do things longer.”
The UAW didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment regarding the 401(k) change, which is printed within the deal.
Fain last week admitted to not achieving every thing he wanted for UAW retirement, including pensions and health care. He said these advantages remain a goal for future bargaining when the tentative deals, if ratified, expire on April 30, 2028.
What are veteran employees’ concerns?
A veteran Ford employee of 25 years said there’s frustration that Fain didn’t achieve what he promised to reward traditional, or Tier 1, employees compared with newer hires, also referred to as in-progression or Tier 2 employees.
“Tier 1 gave back in 2008 and we feel we lost a whole lot of money over 17 years,” said the employee, who asked to not be named for fear of criticism or retribution by the union. “It’s sad that this group of individuals worked a whole profession without ever getting their money. He didn’t come through. He made Tier 2 whole.”
China Jones, a 23-year employee at Louisville Assembly Plant, shared an identical sentiment. “Older veterans like us made the sacrifices for them [the automakers],” she told a local television station. “And we do not get nothing out of it.”
GM, which has the bottom support so far for the deal, has the very best variety of traditional employees on a percentage basis, followed by Ford after which Stellantis. Stellantis also had much more usage of temporary employees, who will largely be converted to full-time employees and be eligible for top wages by the top of the deals.
“The [workers] hired before 2008 are going to be less thrilled with the contract, primarily because they will get the 25% that everyone got, but the brand new hires, temporary and progression employees could rise up to 160% or so,” Art Wheaton, a labor professor on the Employee Institute at Cornell University. “It could actually be plant-by-plant for the ratification votes based on what are their demographics in that exact location.”
What happens next?
If members at considered one of the automakers corresponding to GM vote down their pact, UAW leaders would have to choose the following steps regarding whether to return to the table, initiate strikes, or each.
Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, said a rejection of a deal and even closer-than-expected voting could hinder the union’s ability to prepare other firms — a goal of Fain moving forward.
“One in all the things that employees in nonunion facilities are going to take a look at is that this ratification vote,” Masters said. “They’ll need to know why some employees didn’t vote to ratify on condition that it is a record contract … that is going to be some food for thought that the union goes to need to be prepared to deal with when it goes to attempt to organize these nonunion facilities.”
Fain has said the union has received an influx of interest and support from nonunion autoworkers. He said the UAW still has goals not achieved during these negotiations in its sights.
“There are too many nonunion autoworkers and an excessive amount of power behind the forces of corporate greed for us to win every thing we deserve in a single go. That is why we’re constructing our strike muscle to go even further in 2028,” he said Wednesday.
Following the UAW’s tentative agreements, nonunion automakers operating within the U.S. corresponding to Toyota Motor, Honda Motor and Hyundai Motor raised wages for factory employees.
Hyundai said Monday it should raise factory employee pay 25% by 2028, matching the final wage increase won by the UAW during that period, Reuters reported. Toyota raised factory pay 9% to 10% starting in January, while Honda said it should increase wages 11% through the same period.
“We call that the UAW bump,” Fain told senators Tuesday. “That stands for ‘U Are Welcome.'”