Members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike on October 24, 2023 in Arlington, Texas, at a General Motors assembly plant where the American automaker’s large SUVs are built.
James Breeden | Reuters
DETROIT – General engines plans to invest about $13 billion in U.S. facilities by April 2028, the United Auto Workers union said as part of its recent tentative agreement with the automaker.
GM has already announced some of the planned investments, including $4 billion in the Orion Assembly in suburban Detroit and $2 billion in Spring Hill, Tennessee, for new electric vehicles. Others, like $1.25 billion for a future electric vehicle factory in Lansing Grand River, are new.
Many of the new investments include hundreds of millions of dollars for assembly plants to support or add volume, as well as engine and parts plants.
Details of the tentative agreement were released Saturday after local UAW leaders with GM approved the pact, which must still be ratified by a simple majority of the union’s 46,000 members with the automaker. GM was the last Detroit automaker to reach a tentative agreement afterward Ford engine and Chrysler parent Stellar.
The union announces investment and product details to demonstrate job security to members.
GM’s U.S. investments through the terms of the 4 ½-tear tentatively compared to $8.1 billion announced by the union at Ford and $18.9 billion at Stellantis, including $6.2 billion in previously announced parts plants in Kokomo, Indiana.
The union’s details about GM did not include billions in previously announced investments in four joint-venture battery cell factories in the U.S., including three future facilities.
GM declined to comment on the details released, citing a statement from CEO Mary Barra when the tentative deal was initially announced: “GM is pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with the UAW that reflects the team’s contributions while allowing us to allows us to continue investing in our future and creating good jobs in the U.S.,” she said. “We look forward to having everyone back working across all our operations, delivering great products for our customers and working as one team to win.”
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The tentative labor agreement was announced Monday after about six weeks of targeted strikes by the union against GM, Stellantis and Ford, also known as the “Big Three” automakers. The work stoppages began on September 15 after the parties failed to reach agreements with automakers for 146,000 UAW members by a strike deadline.
“There’s a reason why the Big Three and their allies feel like they’ve just been taken to the cleaners. This contract will deliver wage increases and economic benefits like we have never seen before,” UAW Vice President Mike Booth said during an online broadcast on Saturday. “The profits in this contract are worth more than four times the last contract.”
Like the UAW’s tentative agreement with Stellantis and Ford, the deal includes 25% wage increases, bonuses and other enhanced benefits for autoworkers, such as profit-sharing payments and a $5,000 ratification bonus.
The 25% increases include an 11% increase upon ratification, followed by a 3% increase over the next three years and then a 5% increase in September 2027.
At GM, the union also made big gains by cutting several levels of workers so that they were paid the same or comparable salaries as their traditional colleagues in assembly plants. UAW President Shawn Fain said some workers will receive an immediate 89% pay increase if ratified by members.
“One of our central goals in this round of negotiations was to eliminate levels,” Fain said during the broadcast. “While we haven’t won everything, we have made tremendous progress at GM. We have done more to eliminate wage levels than any of the Big Three.”
New employees added to the agreement include employees of GM’s Ultium Cells battery cell joint venture, Fain reaffirmed Saturday. The battery workers will get a raise of between $6 and $8 an hour, he said.
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Fain on Saturday reiterated the union’s plans to use the record contracts with GM, Ford and Stellantis as leverage to unite other automakers.
“We are not shy or quiet about what our plans are: our goal is to organize auto workers across the country in the coming years,” Fain said. “The Big Three aren’t the only auto companies making record profits. Auto workers at Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen, Hyundai and Tesla are also earning record contracts.”
Toyota engine announced plans earlier this week to raise wages at U.S. factories. The new rates would see production workers at top hourly rates in Kentucky receive about 9% raises to $34.80 per hour — still below the top rate of more than $40 per hour under the UAW’s tentative agreements with the Detroit automakers.
UAW members at Ford have already begun voting on that tentative agreement. Most notably, 82% of workers at the Ford Assembly Plant in Michigan voted in favor of the pact this week. The plant in suburban Detroit was one of the first to strike along with other assembly plants along with GM and Stellantis.
UAW members with Stellantis and GM are expected to vote on the deals in the coming weeks.